(meteorobs) Observation August 12/13 2011

[Pierre Martin]

Hi all,

Here's my belated report for the peak night of the Perseids.  I  
watched from a friend's cottage, north of Ottawa near the small town  
of Bouchette.  By early evening, it was apparent that the sky  
conditions were going to be poor with the Full Moon accompanying waves  
of thick cumulus clouds passing through the region.  Yet I was  
determined to give a try.  I watched casually for most of the evening  
as the sky was just too overcast to attempt signing on.  At one point  
in between clouds, a delightful mag -2 PER was seen heading down  
towards the eastern horizon.  A bit later, while setting up my  
cameras, a dramatic mag -4 PER fireball shot 30 degrees through the  
south, ending with a terminal flash and a 3 sec train.

It took until 12:30am EDT for the sky to finally clear up enough to  
attempt a formal sign on.  I was only able to watch for about an hour  
before the sky became overcast again.  During that time, the LM was  
5.0 and I held my field of view to the north, well away from the  
strong glare of the moonlight.  I tried my best to retain some dark  
adaptation, but the sky was brightly lit which gave it a rather dull  
and grey appearance.  Not a hint of Milky Way could be seen.  Despite  
the two bright meteors seen earlier in between clouds, the rates were  
disappointing with a total of just 14 PER.  Nothing else, not even a  
single sporadic was seen.  It was a far cry from the kind of overall  
meteor rates seen in late July and early August, when the sky was much  
darker.  I'd agree with Bob Lunsford that this seemed to be a below  
average year for the PERs.  On the plus side, it was a pleasant night  
to be out.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 12/13 2011
BEGIN: 04:30 UT (00:30 EDT) END: 05:35 UT (01:35 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.92 West; Lat: 46.18 North
Observing site: Bouchette, Quebec, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
PER (Perseids)__________________________________03:18 +58
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_____________________________19:04 +51
AUD (August Draconids)__________________________18:06 +62
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___LM____PER_SPO_KCG_AUD

04:30-05:35__311 +80___0.95___5.00___14__0___0___0


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______AVE

PER____2___2___1___3___5___1_____+1.71


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: 8 min

Breaks (UT): 5:11-19

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