(meteorobs) Observation July 26/27 2011

[Pierre Martin]

I made a last minute decision to go out at the Pendleton Airport this  
past Wednesday morning for some meteor observing when I realized the  
sky had cleared much sooner than anticipated.  The sky was beautiful  
with average (3/5) transparency and a well structured Milky Way.  It  
was the nicest sky I've seen so far at the GGC site.  One of the  
Gliding club members present there for the night saw me driving in and  
he joined me for a bit of viewing out on the airfield.  The session  
was otherwise quiet, except for a few moments of howling coyotes in  
the distance.  The thin crescent Moon was noticed at 2:55am EDT coming  
up over the east.  It caused just a slight dip in LM.

Observing for a little over two hours time, I saw a definite increase  
in meteor rates, with a total of 40 meteors.  The biggest difference  
compared to just one night ago was the much stronger Delta Aquarids  
(SDA), with as many as 11 meteors, making them the strongest shower  
source seen on that night.  The Perseids followed closely with 9  
meteors.  The Alpha Capricornids and Antihelions produced only low  
rates.

The nicest meteor was a mag 0 SDA seen at 2:28am EDT that travelled a  
long 30 degrees.

I'm looking forward to being out again this weekend,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 26/27 2011
BEGIN: 05:40 UT (01:40 EDT) END: 07:50 UT (03:50 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.092 West; Lat: 45.568 North
Observing site: Pendleton Airport, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position

SDA (South Delta Aquarids)______________________22:28 -17
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________________20:16 -11
ANT (Antihelions)_______________________________21:04 -15
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)_________________________22:36 -31
PER (Perseids)__________________________________01:32 +53
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___LM____SPO_SDA_CAP_ANT_PAU_PER

05:40-06:45__312 +07___1.08___6.30__10___7___1___1___0___3
06:45-07:50__328 +07___1.08___6.23___7___4___0___1___0___6

TOTALS:________________2.16_________17__11___1___2___0___9  = 40


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
______0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO___1___0___4___4___3___5_____+3.35
SDA___1___2___0___1___5___2_____+3.18
PER___0___1___2___3___1___2_____+3.11
ANT___0___0___0___0___2___0_____+4.00
CAP___0___0___1___0___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: none

Breaks (UT): none

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