(meteorobs) Observation September 15/16 2012

[Pierre Martin]

I enjoyed some more observing on the following night at Sandbanks.  After a pleasant time viewing several DSO's with Joe's dobsonian during the evening hours, taking advantage of very good seeing conditions, I settled in my chair for a couple of hours of meteor observing.

The sky transparency was not quite as good as the previous night (about 3/5) but the temperature was comfortable.

With nearly two and a half hours, centred around and after midnight, I recorded 20 meteors.  As September is far in between major showers, the majority of the activity was, as expected, mainly sporadic.  The rates were again a bit on the low side.  The South Taurids/antihelion source was weakly active throughout the session.  No Sept Perseids were seen on this night.

Nothing really stood out; lots of dim meteors.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: September 15/16 2012
BEGIN: 03:10 UT (23:10 EDT) END: 6:00 UT (02:00 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -77.1286 West; Lat: 43.8461 North
Observing site: Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting.
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Southern Taurids (STA) - 00:48 (012) +05
September Epsilon Perseids (SPE) - 03:38 (054) +40
Orionids (ORI) 04:48 (072) +03
September Lyncids (SLY) 07:50 (117) +56
September Iota Cassiopeiids (SIC) - 02:27 (037) +64
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___F______LM____SPO_STA_SPE_ORI_SLY_SIC

03:10-04:11__310 +11___1.00___1.00___6.60___5___1___0___/___/___1
04:11-05:36__328 +11___1.00___1.00___6.60___6___2___0___/___/___0
05:36-06:00__343 +11___0.40___1.00___6.68___3___2___0___/___/___0

TOTALS:________________2.40_________________14__5___0___/___/___1  = 20

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
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MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

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

SPO___1___1___2___1___7___2_____+3.29
STA___0___0___2___0___2___1_____+3.40
SIC___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+0.00

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.
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SKY OBSCURED (FOV) (UT):  None

------------------------

Dead time: 26 min (plots and breaks)

Breaks (UT): 4:24-25, 4:50-5:02, 5:06-18


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