(meteorobs) Observation July 8/9 2011

[Pierre Martin]

Hello all,

After suffering from relatively poor weather around the Spring  
moonless windows, it was nice to be back out in July.  Meteor activity  
is definitely on the rise.

I went to Bootland Farm on the Saturday morning of July 9th to observe  
for a couple of hours.  The sky was clear with average (3/5)  
transparency although the horizons were somewhat murkier than usual,  
and the Milky Way was a bit muted, possibly due to forest fire smoke.   
It was however a very pleasant night with few bugs.  The observing  
field was all nicely groomed and very pleasant.  In the distance (over  
the S-E) were occasional flashes of lightning from a storm that  
appeared well below the horizon.

Meteor activity was a bit slow in the first hour, but picked up nicely  
in the second hour.  The very first meteor seen just one minute after  
signing on was also my first Perseid of the year.  It was a +1 mag  
with a one second train just east of the star Enif.  The plot gives a  
good alignment with the PER (Perseid) radiant, as opposed to the  
nearby CAN (C Andromedid) radiant.
That being said, the second hour did provide a surprising 3 members of  
the CAN shower.

The brightest meteor was a mag -2 CAN seen at 3:07am EDT shooting  
below Delphinus.

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 8/9 2011
BEGIN: 05:12 UT (01:12 EDT) END: 07:25 UT (03:25 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North
Observing site: Bootland Farm, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position

ANT (Antihelion)________________________________20:00 -19
CAN (C andromedids - IMO video shower)__________02:00 +48
PER (Perseids)__________________________________00:30 +50
JPE (July Pegasids - IMO video shower)__________23:08 +11
BAQ (Beta Aquarids) - IMO video shower)_________21:05 -04
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________________19:10 -15
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___LM____SPO_ANT_CAP_JPE_PER_CAN_BAQ

05:12-06:15__314 +12___1.00___6.25___5___1___0___0___1___0___0
06:15-07:25__331 +13___1.13___6.33__13___1___0___0___0___3___0

TOTALS:________________2.13_________18___2___0___0___1___3___0  = 24


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

SPO___0___1___1___3___0___4___7___2_____+2.89
CAN___1___0___0___0___0___0___2___0_____+2.00
ANT___0___0___0___0___1___1___0___0_____+2.50
PER___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0_____+1.00


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: 5 min (plotting & breaks)

Breaks (UT): 5:31-32
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