(meteorobs) Observation May 21/22 2012

[Pierre Martin]

I observed on the morning of May 22, for nearly two hours.  Average quality transparency (3.5/5), and just a few clouds low in the east.  It was a comfortable night with a rather warm breeze from the south, and no bugs.  It was also a very dry night, without any signs of dew - unusual for the Bootland Farm site, and very pleasant.

Meteor activity was low with only six meteors seen.  The brightest was a swift mag 0 sporadic with 3 sec train.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: May 21/22 2012
BEGIN: 05:15 UT (01:15 EDT) END: 7:30 UT (03:30 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
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Antihelion (ANT) - 16:48 (252) -22
Eta Aquariids (ETA) - 23:12 (348) +04
SPO (sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___F______LM____SPO_ANT ETA

05:15-06:35__261 +08___1.00___1.00___6.30___1___2___/
06:35-07:30__278 +08___0.88___1.00___6.25___2___1___/

TOTALS:________________1.88_________________3___3___/  = 6

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

ANT___0___0___0___1___1___1_____+4.00
SPO___1___0___0___1___0___1_____+2.66

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

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Dead time: 22.99 min (20 min for breaks & 2.99 min for plots)

Breaks (UT): 5:42-55, 6:15-20, 6:35-37