(meteorobs) Observation August 5/6 2014

Pierre Martin pmartin at teksavvy.com
Sat Aug 16 01:17:41 EDT 2014


Although I did not have any luck seeing the Perseids on or near the moonlit peak nights due to poor weather, I had a superb session last week.  Finally, a clear and transparent night!  We’ve had a few weeks of what appeared to be endless haze/smoke in the atmosphere, so it was so nice to see the summer Milky Way in all of its glory down to the horizon and a sky with so many dim stars overhead.  I arrived at Bootland Farm just as the gibbous Moon was setting at about 1:20am local time.  Minutes later, the sky was fully dark and remained so until dawn.  As I setup my chair and sleeping bad, I noticed a handful of Perseids (5 or 6 in a relatively short span of time).  I also saw something wonderful and unexpected… the famous bright eclipsing binary star Algol in Perseus must have been near its minimum brightness… down to mag 3.4 or so!  The sky conditions were certainly not a factor; it was crystal clear in that direction.  As the night progressed, Algol seemed to get gradually brighter.  Talk about luck!

Meteor activity was really good!  In three hours, I counted 99 meteors in all - a busy and very entertaining session!  The majority of activity consisted of Perseids with hourly rates of 8, 17 and 13 meteors (a nice mix of both bright and dim meteors).  The SDA’s were still fairly active and I was surprised to see as many as 10 ATR’s!  I agree with Bob Lunsford that the Eridanids are indeed an impressive little shower; producing some super fast and colourful streaks that usually leave persistent trains (the best of these was a very nice mag 0 blue-green bolt of light that shot 30 degrees and left a 2 sec train).  Sporadic rates were also very good in the first hour, declining gradually as the night went on.  The highlight came at 3:10am EDT when I two meteors (a PER and a KCG) nearly crossing paths perpendicularly.  They were seen just a fraction of a second of each other!

The best Perseid was a mag -2 blue-white beauty in the south-east with a terminal flash and a 5 second persistent train.

At the end of the night, it was cool and damp with a temperature of only 9C.  The bugs were never an issue at all :)  Orion rising in the east reminded me that Summer won’t be here for too much longer.  I hope to be out again to look for KCG’s as the moonless window starts to open up again.


August 5/6 2014, 05:30-08:35 UT (01:30-04:35 EDT)
Location: Bootland Farm (Stewartville), Ontario, Canada 
(Long: -76 deg 29'; Lat: 45 deg 23')

Observed showers:
Kappa Cygnids (KCG) - 18:56 (284) +58
Alpha Capricornids (CAP) - 20:32 (308) -09
Anthelions (ANT) - 21:32 (323) -12
Delta Aquariids (SDA) - 22:56 (344) -15
Piscids Austrinids (PAU) - 23:08 (347) -30
Perseids (PER) - 02:16 (034) +55
Alpha Triangulids (ATR) - 02:40 (040) +41
Eta Eridanids (ERI) - 02:30 (038) -14


Period 1: 05:30-06:30 UT; clear; temp 13C, F 1.00; LM 6.53; facing SE50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
PER: eight: -2; 0; +1; +2(3); +3; +5
SDA: three: +2; +3; +4
KCG: one: +2
ANT: one: +4
ATR: one: +5
ERI: one: +4
Sporadics: twelve: +2(2); +3(2); +4(3); +5(5)
Total meteors: twenty-seven

Period 2: 06:30-07:31 UT; clear; temp 11C, F 1.00; LM 6.55; facing SE50 deg; teff 1.01 hr (0.33 min dead time)
PER: seventeen: 0; +1(2); +2(5); +3(5); +4(2); +5(2)
SDA: five: +2(2); +3; +5(2)
ATR: five: +1(2); +2; +4; +5
ERI: three: 0; +2; +4
KCG: two: +3; +5
CAP: one: 0
ANT: one: +1
Sporadics: eight: 0; +3; +4(6)
Total meteors: forty-two

Period 3: 07:31-08:35 UT; clear; temp 9C, F 1.00; LM 6.28; facing SE50 deg; teff 1.00 hr. (4 min dead time)
PER: thirteen: +1(2); +2; +3(2); +4(4); +5(4)
SDA: four: +3; +4; +5(2)
ATR: four: +1(2); +5(2)
ANT: three: +3; +4(2)
Sporadics: six: +1; +3(2); +4(2); +5
Total meteors: thirty


Clear skies,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


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