(meteorobs) Observation August 12/13 2012

Pierre Martin pmartin at teksavvy.com
Sat Oct 6 02:16:56 EDT 2012


The post-peak night had a more promising weather, so I went south-west of the city to Silver Lake Provincial Park where the probability of clear skies seemed best.  Raymond joined me once again for the night.  We setup all of our equipment (cameras, mounts, chairs) near the boat launch, affording an excellent view of the northern sky.  We positioned ourselves carefully so that we would not be bothered by a few flood lights near the beach.  The sky took a while to clear, which delayed formal observing until close to midnight.  Then, it was clear, with just the occasional patchy cloudiness.  During the best moments (especially after 2:00 local time), the sky was impressive with above-average (4/5) transparency and mag 6.7 stars overhead.  With nearly four hours of observing time, I saw 167 meteors (137 Perseids, 23 sporadics, three Kappa Cygnids, two antihelions, one Delta Aquariid and one Alpha Triangulid).  A great night!

The best meteor was a mag -4 Perseid with 8 sec train seen at 2:20 (local time).  Another bright Perseid was seen about half an hour later; this time a flaring mag -3 beauty, also with an 8 sec train.

I did not look for any SDA's and ERI's after 2:30 (local time) due to trees blocking that part of the sky.

Here's my composite photos for this night:

Canon 7D, ISO 1600, with Tamron 17-50mm lens at f/2.8:
http://tinyurl.com/992k9kx

Canon 300D, ISO 1600, with Canon 15mm Fisheye lens at f/2.8:
http://tinyurl.com/8j76xgd

The planet and crescent Moon gathering in the morning sky was quite beautiful.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 12/13 2012
BEGIN: 03:40 UT (23:40 EDT) END: 8:50 UT (04:50 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.515 West; Lat: 44.813 North
Observing site: Silver Lake Provincial Park, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align.
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Kappa Cygnids (KCG) - 19:00 (285) +51
Antihelions (ANT) - 22:08 (332) -09
Delta Aquariids (SDA) - 23:28 (352) -13
Eta Eridanids (ERI) - 03:00 (045) -10
Perseids (PER) - 03:12 (048) +58
Alpha Triangulids (ATR) - 03:16 (049) +37
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___F______LM____SPO_PER_KCG_ANT_SDA_ERI_ATR

03:40-05:00__357 +81___0.73___1.00___6.45___3___21__2___1___1___/___0
05:42-06:42__357 +81___1.00___1.08___6.70___9___41__1___1___0___0___0
06:42-07:43__047 +79___1.00___1.00___6.60___7___41__0___0___/___/___1
07:43-08:50__047 +79___0.95___1.00___6.23___4___34__0___0___/___/___0

TOTALS:________________3.68_________________23_137__3___2___1___0___1  = 167


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

PER___1___1___3___4__10__19__30__20__31__13___5_____+2.49
SPO___0___0___0___0___0___2___4___8___7___2___0_____+3.13
KCG___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___2___0_____+4.66
ANT___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___0___0___0_____+2.00
SDA___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0_____+3.00
ATR___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0_____+2.00


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.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV) (UT):  15% from 5:42 to 6:10 (clouds cover)

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

Dead time: 47 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 3:57-59, 4:02-36, 5:00-42, 7:32-33, 7:45-53, 7:57-59

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