(meteorobs) Observation November 6/7 2010

[Pierre Martin]

Unexpected cloudiness spoiled the highly promising weather forecasts  
for the first half of this night.

So instead, I was out at the Fred Lossing Observatory for a late night  
session, after it finally cleared.  By the time the clouds moved on,  
it was 1am EDT.  Sanjeev was the only other observer out to enjoy the  
winter stars.  The patience was well worth it though... :)   
Transparency was excellent, the gegenshein was faintly visible and 6.5  
mag stars were glimpsed at the zenith!

Over the two and a half hours that followed, I saw 35 meteors (18  
sporadics, 5 North Taurids, 5 late Orionids, 3 South Taurids, 2 early  
Leonids and 2 faint Andromedids from the radiant described in Bob  
Lunsford's Weekly Meteor Outlook).

The sporadics were once again faint on the average.  One of the early  
Leonids seen at 1:51am EDT, was a bright mag +1 meteor that shot 25  
degrees in the south-east, leaving a one second train behind.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: November 6/7 2010
BEGIN: 05:10 UT (01:10 EDT) END: 08:03 UT (03:03 EST)
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)_____________________________03:38 (055) +22
STA (South Taurids)_____________________________03:42 (056) +14
ORI (Orionids)__________________________________07:14 (109) +16
LEO (Leonids)___________________________________09:50 (148) +25
AND (Andromedids - IMO video)___________________01:27 (022) +27

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

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

PERIOD(UT)___Teff___LM____SPO_AND_NTA_STA_ORI_LEO

05:10-06:11__1.01___6.50___8___0___3___0___2___1
06:11-07:10__0.96___6.48___4___1___2___2___2___1
07:20-08:03__0.53___6.45___6___1___0___1___1___0

TOTALS:______2.50_________18___2___5___3___5___2  = 35


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______AVE

SPO___0___0___2___0___3___6___7_____+3.88
NTA___0___1___0___1___2___1___0_____+2.40
ORI___0___1___2___0___0___0___2_____+2.40
STA___1___0___0___0___0___2___0_____+2.33
AND___0___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+3.50
LEO___0___0___1___0___1___0___0_____+2.00

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: 11 min (break) + 2.57 min (plotting) = 13.57 min

Breaks (UT): 7:10-20, 7:45-56