(meteorobs) Observation August 1/2 2011

Wed Aug 10 01:37:42 EDT 2011

On Monday evening August 1, I went to Westmeath Lookout, a site  
located a little over 1.5 hours drive west of Ottawa, towards  
Pembroke.  I really enjoy this location for meteor observing due to  
its totally wide open horizons, and high vantage point overlooking the  
Ottawa Valley.  There always seem to be a bit of a breeze on top of  
the hill, usually keeping dew and fog at a minimum.  The site is also  
very well taken care of, clean and comfortable with short, groomed  
grass.  Occasional car headlights might pass by, but it is only a  
minor nuisance as the direction that they come from is well away from  
the direction of my field of view.  Unlike some of the much more  
remote sites that I occasionally like to visit, this is a spot that I  
feel quite comfortable setting up solo.  The cell phone works and  
there is a main road and a bit of nearby civilization in case help is  
needed.  Overhead, the sky is quite gorgeous with 6.6 mag stars at the  
zenith and has a similar pristine look to it that is normally seen  
deep in the wilderness.

Unexpected waves of low and slow moving cloud cover and dissipating  
storm clouds delayed my session.  On the plus side, a westerly breeze  
kept the night totally dry.  It wasn't until 12:40am EDT that the sky  
was finally clear enough to sign on.  I was still able to watch for  
three and a half hours.  I recorded 89 meteors.  The Perseids were now  
the most active shower source with 28 seen.  The Perseids even  
exceeded the sporadic rate during the second hour.  The Delta Aquarids  
were still active, but a bit weaker than they were a few nights ago.   
The August Piscids (from Bob Lunsford's weekly outlook) seemed to have  
come to life, although weakly.  The brightest meteor was a mag -1 blue- 
white Perseid at 12:59am EDT that left a 3 sec train.  The most  
impressive however was a VERY slow earthgrazing sporadic at 2:11am  
EDT.  This meteor was never any brighter than mag +4, but it took  
several seconds to crawl a persistent 40 degrees path.  It looked like  
it was coming from a radiant deep in Bootes.  I have seen a few of  
these very slow moving meteors last year as well, in early to mid  
August.  Never more than one or two per night at best, but the  
extremely slow velocity makes them unmistakable.  I am wondering if  
anyone else has seen possible activity from Bootes at this time of the  
year?

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

DATE: August 1/2 2011
BEGIN: 04:40 UT (00:40 EDT) END: 08:25 UT (04:25 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.859 West; Lat: 45.793 North
City & Province: Westmeath Lookout, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position

PER (Perseids)__________________________________01:58 +54
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________________20:22 -10
ANT (Antihelions)_______________________________21:20 -14
SDA (South Delta Aquarids)______________________22:45 -16
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)_________________________22:56 -29
AUP (August Piscids - IMO video database)_______00:30 +18
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___LM____SPO_SDA_CAP_ANT_PAU_PER_AUP

04:40-05:54__305 +06___1.00___6.58___7___6___4___2___0___5___1
05:54-06:54__321 +05___1.00___6.65___9___2___1___1___0__10___1
06:54-07:55__350 +05___1.01___6.65__14___3___0___1___0___9___1
07:58-08:25__004 +18___0.45___6.37___4___2___0___1___0___4___1

TOTALS:________________3.46_________34__13___5___5___0__28___4  = 89

Notes: The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods, in  
Universal Time. The second column (Field) is the area in in the sky  
where I centered my field of view. The third column (TEFF) Teff is  
simply the total time during the observing session spent actually  
watching the sky. Breaks and/or dead time are not included in the  
reported Teff. It is reported in decimal format such that a 60 minute  
observing session would be reported as Teff = 1.00. The column (LM) is  
the average naked eye limiting magnitude seen.  All following columns  
indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.  For more  
info, see: http://www.namnmeteors.org/guidechap2.html
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

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

SPO___0___0___5___2__12___4___9___2_____+3.47
PER___1___4___3___2___6___8___4___0_____+2.71
SDA___0___2___2___2___2___2___2___1_____+2.77
CAP___0___1___1___0___0___3___0___0_____+2.60
ANT___0___0___1___1___1___1___1___0_____+3.00
AUP___0___0___0___0___2___1___1___0_____+3.75

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: 14 min (break)

Breaks (UT): 5:02-09, 5:18-25, 7:55-58

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