(meteorobs) Observation October 21/22 2012

Mon Nov 12 13:20:23 EST 2012

I was only able to get one night out of this year's Orionids near their peak, but it was a good, productive session.  I also chose to dedicate every Orionid that I saw to Wayne T. Hally (aka Meteor Wayne) who recently passed away.  Wayne was a dedicated and passionate meteor observer, and a good friend to many in the astronomical community.  

I went to the new L&A County Public Dark Site near Kaladar.  Located next to Highway 41, it offers very easy public access for dark mag 6.5+ skies, and I was curious to see this spot even though it's a fairly long 2 hour drive.  When I arrived early to setup, the sky was solidly overcast.  The predicted clearing eventually came much later, after 11pm.  By then, I could go ahead and setup my cameras and equipment just as the Moon was setting.  I was surprised to see four other observers join me (from Ottawa, Belleville and even as far away as Montreal).  One of them showed up after 2am to enjoy the winter constellations.  It was a nice night, with average (3/5) transparency, and a gegenshein barely visible happening to be in the darkest part of the sky.  The temperature was comfortable except for a humidity rise (with dewing/frost) near the end.  I faced the south-east and kept my field of view centered at 50 degrees for the entire night.  It was a good night with activity seen from every active source.  With five hours of recording, I got a total of 144 meteors (82 Orionids, 12 North Taurids, 8 South Taurids, 7 Epsilon Geminids, 5 Leo Minorids and 30 sporadics).  My general impression was that of a very typical Orionid return.  A lot of faint stuff.  Only two negative magnitude Orionids were seen.  The best meteor appeared at 2am EDT.  It was a very impressive golden-yellow mag -3 Leo Minorid that shot 40 degrees into the south, leaving behind a 2 sec train.  It was bright enough to capture the attention of other observers who were busy with their scopes or cameras.

Photos:
Composite taken with Canon 7D and 17-55mm f/2.8 lens with two Orionids:
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210060382&k=cjpKHSp&lb=1&s=X3
Close-up/crop of the above:
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210049466&k=SkHzf6z&lb=1&s=O

Composite taken with Canon 300D and 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.  The two streaks in Orion, including the bright one, are probably Iridium satellites:
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210050454&k=TnCpz9V&lb=1&s=X3

Snapshots of the observing site taken in the morning:
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210060410&k=vwnB4fw&lb=1&s=X2
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210060820&k=22JDg25&lb=1&s=X2
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210061015&k=3V3L75H&lb=1&s=X2
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210061187&k=vFvgVtQ&lb=1&s=X2
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210061600&k=SKZqLp4&lb=1&s=X2
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/Orionids-2012/26473305_99QS2w#!i=2210061674&k=nFwrPvw

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

DATE: October 21/22 2012
BEGIN: 04:20 UT (00:20 EDT) END: 10:20 UT (06:20 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -77.116 West; Lat: 44.559 North
Observing site: L&A County Public Dark Site, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align.
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Northern Taurids (NTA) - 02:40 (040) +19
Southern Taurids (STA) -02:48 (042) +11
Orionids (ORI) 06:20 (095) +16
Epsilon Geminids (EGE) 06:56 (104) +28
Leonis Minorids (LMI) - 10:36 (159) +37
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___F______LM____SPO_ORI_NTA_STA_EGE_LMI

04:20-05:20__047 +09___1.00___1.00___6.54___4___6___3___4___1___/
05:34-06:41__064 +07___1.12___1.00___6.48___7__17___2___1___0___2
07:20-08:20__089 +09___1.00___1.00___6.45___4__14___3___2___1___1
08:20-09:20__104 +08___1.00___1.00___6.45__10__21___2___1___2___2
09:20-10:20__119 +08___1.00___1.00___6.34___5__24___2___0___3___0

TOTALS:________________5.12________________30__82__12___8___7___5  = 144

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

ORI___0___0___2__13__10___8__14__22__13_____+2.67
SPO___0___0___0___2___0___3___9___9___7_____+3.47
NTA___0___0___1___1___0___2___2___3___3_____+3.00
STA___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___3___4_____+4.38
EGE___0___1___0___0___1___1___2___2___0_____+2.14
LMI___1___0___0___0___0___1___3___0___0_____+1.60

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: none

Breaks (UT): 05:20-34, 06:41-07:20

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