(meteorobs) Observation November 2/3 2010

Pierre Martin pmartin at teksavvy.com
Fri Dec 3 01:30:27 EST 2010


I was out on November 2, again at the Fred Lossing Observatory site  
near Almonte.

Observing for two hours, up until local midnight, the sky transparency  
was unusually good.  I was surprised to see a very faint hint of the  
gegenshein too, which is impressive for a site just an hour's drive  
out of the city.  Several observers were present with scopes,  
including Sanjeev Sivarulrasa, Eric Lemay, Ron St-Martin, Bruce  
Harding and Gordon.

I saw 19 meteors (9 sporadics, 5 North Taurids and 5 South Taurids).   
No signs of any meteor activity from Comet 103P/Hartley.

The best meteors were a pair of South Taurids reaching mag +1 over  
long paths, otherwise lots of faint stuff.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: November 2/3 2010
BEGIN: 02:00 UT (22:00 EDT) END: 04:10 UT (00:10 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 15' 50" West; Lat: 45 15' 2" North
City & Province: Almonte, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position

NTA (North Taurids)_____________________________03:12 (048) +21
STA (South Taurids)_____________________________03:16 (049) +12
ORI (Orionids)__________________________________06:48 (102) +16
ETT (Eta Taurids - IMO video)___________________04:04 (061) +24
BCN (Beta Cancrids - IMO video)_________________07:32 (113) -10

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

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

PERIOD(UT)___Teff___LM____SPO_NTA_STA_ORI_ETT_BCN

02:00-03:01__1.00___6.50___2___1___1___/___0___/
03:01-04:10__1.12___6.50___7___4___4___/___0___/

TOTALS:______2.12__________9___5___5___/___0___/  = 19


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__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO___0___1___2___0___6_____+4.22
NTA___0___1___0___2___2_____+4.00
STA___2___1___0___2___0_____+2.40


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: 0.5 min (break) + 1.82 min (plotting) = 2.32 min

Breaks (UT): 3:42 (30 sec)




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