(meteorobs) Observation October 4/5 2011

Pierre Martin pmartin at teksavvy.com
Tue Nov 29 00:07:27 EST 2011


I enjoyed several days of camping at Achray, located deep inside  
Algonquin Provincial Park, with company of Ivan & Nicholas Zuger, Joe  
Silverman and Chris Thuemen.  It was great to relax with no fixed  
schedule, and enjoy the natural beauty and seclusion of Algonquin.   
Despite a fair amount of rain and dull days, we did managed to get two  
clear nights!  I spent the first night keeping Joe company on the  
beach, as we explored an opened view of the pristine sky with his  
12.5" dob.  On the other clear night, I settled on the beach for a few  
hours of pre-dawn meteor observing.  While I kept busy meteor  
observing, Ivan (in company of Chris) was a few feet away from me,  
doing first-light imaging with scope & DSLR, and eagerly trying out a  
new autoguider.

I waited for the gibbous Moon and lingering clouds to part, and then I  
observed for nearly 4 hours.  The sky was most impressive near the  
beginning the session with 7th mag stars.  The gegenshein was visible,  
as was a zodiacal band extending to Taurus.  The transparency  
gradually worsened as the night went on.  Fast moving low clouds  
seemed to appear out of nowhere late at night, and forced me to take  
several breaks.  I would simply stop observing when they'd encroach my  
field of view (opting to avoid adding an F correction for sky  
obstructions).  In all, I saw 38 meteors.  There was some minor but  
fairly decent Taurid and Delta Aurigid activity.  I did not watch for  
October Camelopardalids due to trees blocking that area of the sky.   
Sporadic activity seemed a bit low given the pristine skies.

In all, it was an enjoyable and very relaxing session.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: October 4/5 2011
BEGIN: 05:10 UT (01:10 EDT) END: 09:35 UT (05:35 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -77.76 West; Lat: 45.87 North
Observing site: Achray Park (Algonquin Provincial Park), Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Southern Taurid (STA) - 01:52 (028) +08
Northern Taurid (NTA) - 01:44 (026) +14
Orionids (ORI) 05:40 - (85) +14
Delta Aurigids (DAU) - 03 05:56 (089) +49
October Camelopardalids (OCT) - 10:48 (162) +79
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___LM____SPO_STA_NTA_DAU_OCT

05:10-06:13__006 +08___1.01___7.03___6___2___1___1___/
06:13-07:30__026 +08___1.00___6.73___3___1___2___2___/
07:30-08:37__044 +08___1.00___6.57___5___1___1___1___/
08:37-09:35__061 +08___0.78___6.45___6___1___2___3___/

TOTALS:________________3.79_________20___5___6___7___/  = 38

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__+6______AVE

SPO___1___4___2___5___5___2___1_____+2.95
DAU___1___1___1___0___2___2___0_____+3.00
NTA___0___0___2___1___2___1___0_____+3.33
STA___0___1___0___1___1___2___0_____+3.60

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: 38 min (breaks & plotting)

Breaks (UT): 5:17-19, 6:35-46, 6:53-55, 7:22-24, 7:54-59, 8:27-28,  
8:57-9:08




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