(meteorobs) Observation October 9/10 2010

[Pierre Martin]

On October 9, I returned to the Irvine Lake airstrip to enjoy a full  
night of observing.  On my arrival in the mid-afternoon, I was greeted  
by several Ottawa observers who had been setup and camping throughout  
the past few days.  It was a gorgeous day with a deep blue sky and not  
a single cloud in the sky!

Unlike the previous session at the airstrip, this night was "Nirvana"  
in all of its glory!  Both above-average quality transparency and  
seeing delighted everyone present.  Sharing this night with  
enthusiastic observers was a real treat too!  The night was  
spectacular, with a structured Milky Way and seventh mag stars at the  
zenith.  I even saw a number of casual meteors just before settling  
down in my chair.  This included a double flash low in the east (from  
a possible unseen fireball), and then a deep yellow-orange meteor was  
seen crawling very slowly up from the east, with a path of about 20  
degrees!

I signed on at 9:40pm EDT, once again facing the northern sky, to keep  
the Draconid radiant within view.  Over the course of the 3 hours and  
20 minutes that followed, activity was pretty good with 49 meteors.   
The South Taurids were weak to start off, but had a strong showing in  
the third hour.  The best meteor was a very slow moving gold-orange  
mag +1 sporadic at 10:50pm that persisted for over 4 seconds through a  
30 degrees path.

By 1:10am, I was starting to be tired from being out for the third  
night in a row, and I could no longer keep my eyes open, so I decided  
to pause my meteor watch and take a nap.  I ended up sleeping for an  
hour and 45 minutes.  I signed back on at 2:53am, to enjoy one more  
hour of meteor observing under the pristine sky.  The nap was worth it  
as I was now much more alert.  Overhead, Orion seemed buried in a sea  
of faint stars!  My field of view was now aimed to the south, to  
concentrate on the active radiants up in that part of the sky.  During  
this hour, I saw 23 meteors (including 16 sporadics, 4 Orionids,  2  
South Taurids and 1 Delta Aurigid).

When I signed-off at 4:00am, the temperature was about -6C and there  
was a thick layer of frost covering everything.

All in all, a spectacular night!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 9/10 2010
BEGIN: 01:40 UT (21:40 EDT) END: 08:00 UT (04:00 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -77 15' West; Lat: 45 1' North Elevation: 800 ft
City & Province: Irvine Lake Airstrip (near Denbigh), Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position

GIA (Draconids)_________________________________17:28 (262) +54
STA (South Taurids)_____________________________02:08 (032) +09
ORI (Orionids)__________________________________05:48 (087) +16
DAU (Delta Aurigids)____________________________05:56 (089) +49
EPC (October Epsilon Piscids - IMO video)_______00:05 (001) +14

----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)___Teff___LM____SPO_GIA_STA_ORI_EPC_DAU

01:40-02:44__1.00___6.95___8___1___1___/___0___0
02:44-03:44__1.00___6.95__12___0___0___/___1___0
03:44-04:48__1.00___6.98__11___0___8___0___0___2
04:48-05:10__0.36___7.00___4___0___1___0___0___0
06:53-08:00__1.11___7.15__16___0___2___4___0___1

TOTALS:______4.47_________51___1__12___4___1___3  = 72


Note: The first column (Period UT) refers to the observed periods, in  
Universal Time. The second column (TEFF) is the effective observing  
time, it is minutes/60. The column (LM) is the average naked eye  
limiting magnitude, determined by the triangle star counts method. All  
following columns indicate the number of meteors for each shower  
observed.
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
_____-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE

SPO___1___4___4___6___8__13__11___4_____+3.33
STA___0___0___2___2___4___2___2___0_____+3.00
ORI___0___0___0___0___2___1___1___0_____+3.75
DAU___0___1___0___1___0___0___1___0_____+2.33
GIA___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0_____+2.00
EPC___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0_____+3.00


Note: Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with  
the planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius,  
magnitude +2 to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6  
to +7 are the faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark  
conditions. A meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a fireball  
(IMO definition). The above table contains the magnitudes from all  
observed meteors, and the average (last column) for showers.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV) (UT):  None

------------------------

Dead time: 7 min (breaks) + 1 min (plotting) = 8 min

Breaks (UT): 1:48-50, 1:53-54, 4:19-23, 5:10-6:55