(meteorobs) Observation July 11/12 2012

[Pierre Martin]

I enjoyed a very relaxing mid-July trip to Prince Edward Island.  I took advantage of the very clear skies during the first night to get in a couple of hours of meteor observing.  I was hoping to stay on to observe longer, but I was a bit sleepy after the 14 hours road trip.  Also, the waning last quarter moon came up shortly after midnight.  This would be the only observing session of my trip as the rest of the time had hazy skies. 

Average quality transparency, no bugs and warm enough to be out in t-shirt.  I had to position my chair in a spot of the campground that was shielded from local lights.  While setting up, I casually saw a mag -4 fireball that might have been a possible Mu Lyrid.  It was white, slow and had a thick wake!

The busier July meteor activity was a welcome sight after months of low rates.  In two hours, I observed 19 meteors altogether.  The Phi Piscids were weakly present, which surprised me given how low that radiant at the time.  The brightest meteors included a very swift and trained mag -1 Phi Piscid, as well as a nice mag -1 blue antihelion that flared twice on its path.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 11/12 2012
BEGIN: 02:40 UT (11:40 ADT) END: 04:45 UT (01:45 ADT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -62 35' West; Lat: 46 26' North
Observing site: St Peters Park, PEI, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Mu Lyrids (MUL) - 18:12 (273) +39
Antihelion (ANT) - 20:20 (305) -18
Sigma Capricornids (SCA) - 21:12 (318) -03
July Pegasids (JPE) - 23:28 (352) +12
Perseids (PER) - 00:25 (006) +50
Phi Piscids (PPS) -01:30 (023) +31
c-Andromedids (CAN) - 02:22 (035) +50 
SPO (sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___F______LM____SPO_ANT_PER_SCA_JPE_PPS_CAN_MUL

02:40-03:43__295 +30___1.00___1.00___6.45___4___3___0___0___1___2___1___1
03:43-04:45__310 +29___1.01___1.00___6.15___4___1___0___0___0___1___1___0

TOTALS:________________2.01_________________8___4___0___0___1___3___2___1  = 19

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
______-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE

SPO____0___0___1___2___2___3___0___0_____+2.88
ANT____1___0___0___0___1___1___0___1_____+4.33
PPS____1___1___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+0.00
CAN____0___0___1___0___0___1___0___0_____+2.50
JPE____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0_____+5.00
MUL____0___1___0___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

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Dead time: 10 sec for each meteor to record time, 0.82 min for plots

Breaks (UT): None