(meteorobs) Meteor observations from Alberta 2014 July 29

BRUCE MCCURDY bmccurdy at shaw.ca
Tue Jul 29 18:00:44 EDT 2014


I made my way out to Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve in the wee hours to try to observe the peak of the South Delta Aquarids along with various other active radiants. It turned out to be a more short-lived session than I expected, as after an hour of excellent skies a weather system rolled in which brought increasing cloudiness and eventually a few raindrops. Not quite the type of showers I had in mind! 

Nonetheless it was great to be out of the city and under a truly dark sky, if only for an hour, for the first time since our unsuccessful group attempt to observe the Camelopardalids on May 24 and before that, my annual attempt at the elusive Eta Aquarids on May 6. Since then I have occupied my time observing "meteor smoke" that has recently been identified as the nucleating agent of noctilucent clouds, an interesting development in another phenomenon I have been observing in a somewhat organized manner for over 25 years. (I saw 8 such displays in 2014, a moderate year.) 

We are only now reaching the end of perpetual twilight here in central Alberta (53½° N.), with the first minutes of true astronomical darkness in some 2½ months set to occur on the 31st. This morning when I started around local midnight it was dark enough that one could hardly tell the difference, with an SQM reading nearing 21.7 and a limiting magnitude of 6.25 using the star count method. Under those conditions an hour under the Milky Way wasn't so much a sight for sore eyes, as sustenance for the soul. 

My session was moderately decent with 14 meteors observed in 1.5 hours Teff, not to mention a few mirages and phantoms which I resolutely did Not count. I seem to have become more susceptible to these as I age, and have learned to largely ignore them. 

The best meteor seen was a mag -2 Capricornid, distinctly orange in colour and moving at a majestically slow pace not far from the radiant. I saw one white SDA of similar magnitude, and also fine single examples of the Alpha Triangulid (ATR) and Gamma Draconid (GDR) radiants, both of magnitude 0. Toss in a handful of early Perseids and in all I identified members of 5 different showers, failing only to see the Anthelions, the ultra-low Piscid Austrinids, and the late-rising Eta Eridanids from Bob Lunsford's invaluable weekly outlook. The featured SDAs led the list with 5 shower members seen. 

My IMO report is appended at bottom for those interested.    

Bruce
*****

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Bruce McCurdy" <bmccurdy at shaw.ca>
To: "IMO report forms" <imovisual at gmail.com>
Cc: bmccurdy at shaw.ca
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 3:32:35 PM
Subject: Electronic visual form for 2014-7-29

// Header section
night    	 2014-07-28/29
begin    	 2014-07-29 0745
end      	 2014-07-29 0925
observer	 "Bruce" "McCurdy" "MCCBR"
location	 112 46 48 W, 53 32 12 N
site    	 "Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve (Blackfoot)" "Canada" "51128"
reporter	 "bmccurdy at shaw.ca"

// Shower section
shower	GDR 281 +51
shower	CAP 307 -10
shower	SDA 339 -16
shower	ATR 032 +41
shower	PER 046 +58
shower	ANT 317 -16
shower	SPO 

// Number section
// 	Interval  	RA  	Dec 	Teff 	F    	Lm  	   GDR 	   CAP 	   SDA 	   ATR 	   PER 	   ANT 	   SPO 
period	0745-0815 	000 	+15 	0.500 	1.00 	6.25	 C   0 	 C   0 	 C   1 	 C   1 	 C   2 	 C   0 	 C   1 
period	0815-0845 	015 	+15 	0.500 	1.00 	6.25	 C   0 	 C   1 	 C   2 	 C   0 	 C   1 	 C   0 	 C   0 
period	0855-0925 	045 	+30 	0.500 	1.25 	5.90	 C   1 	 C   1 	 C   2 	 C   0 	 C   1 	 C   0 	 C   0 

// Magnitude section
//          	Show	Interval     -6    -5    -4    -3    -2    -1    +0    +1    +2    +3    +4    +5    +6    +7    Tot
distribution	GDR 	0745-0925     -     -     -     -     -     -   1.0     -     -     -     -     -     -     -    1.0
distribution	CAP 	0745-0925     -     -     -     -   1.0     -     -     -     -     -   1.0     -     -     -    2.0
distribution	SDA 	0745-0925     -     -     -     -   1.0     -     -   2.0   1.0     -   1.0     -     -     -    5.0
distribution	ATR 	0745-0925     -     -     -     -     -     -   1.0     -     -     -     -     -     -     -    1.0
distribution	PER 	0745-0925     -     -     -     -     -     -     -   1.0     -   2.0   1.0     -     -     -    4.0
distribution	SPO 	0745-0925     -     -     -     -     -     -   1.0     -     -     -     -     -     -     -    1.0

// Personal comments
Observations of South Delta Aquarids and seasonal radiants from BHDSP.
Excellent conditions for first hour, gradually compromised by incoming clouds in final half-hour.
Showers observed included Gamma Draconids (GDR) and Alpha Triangulids (ATR) as per AMS list.
No Anthelion meteors were observed. 



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