(meteorobs) Observation September 25/26 2011

[Pierre Martin]

Hello  all,

I am finally catching up on my observing reports.  I really hope to  
get back into the habit of sending these in a little quicker!
Here's my late September moonless window outing at Bootland Farm.  Sky  
2/5 transparency at the beginning (with a few clouds over the east),  
improving to 3/5 towards the end.  I spent most of the evening  
enjoying the views with my 12.5" Portaball, taking advantage of decent  
seeing conditions (Comet 2009 P1 Garrad, NGC7331, Stephan's Quintet,  
fleeting glimpses of the central star in M57, a variety of gorgeous  
globular clusters, and something that I love to do... "cruising" down  
rich Milky Way starfields at low power).

I logged on for about an hour of meteor observing.  Not surprisingly,  
the rates were low prior to midnight with only 5 seen, none of which  
were bright.  The final two meteors (a south Taurid and spo) were  
actually seen just seconds apart!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: September 25/26 2011
BEGIN: 02:25 UT (22:25 EDT) END: 03:30 UT (23:30 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:
Southern Taurids (STA) - 01:16 (019) +06
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___LM____SPO_STA

02:25-03:30__346 +06___1.06___6.33___3___2  =  5

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__+3__+4______AVE

SPO___1___0___2_____+3.33
STA___0___1___1_____+3.50

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: 1.32 min (plotting)

Breaks (UT): None