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(meteorobs) Observation Aug. 11/12 98
Hello,
Just went out last night to observe about 1.5 hours before dawn.
Before that time, a large, scattered cirro-cumulus cloud decided
to park itself right on top. preventing me from doing any useful
data count.
Anyway, for the 1.5 hour clear sky I finally got, my limiting
magnitude reached a surprising 5.4 for a brief time in my
suburban backyard. The transparency became very good once
everything cleared up. For this session, I centered my field
facing north, looking 70 degrees up.
I mounted an umbrella on my camera tripod and indeed, it worked
nicely to keep the glare of the moon out of my eyes. I did not
have any problems with obstructions. Thanks George for this tip!
Saw a handful of Perseids, a display quite similar to a good
Orionid shower. Quite a few bright meteors with brightest ones
at magnitude -2. No serious fireballs to report. A couple Perseids
produced 30 degree paths. Trains were quite difficult to see with
the bright sky. Most trains were 1 second duration and less.
Besides Perseids, I saw a slow, magnitude -1 Alpha Capricornid in
the west and a few sporadics. One sporadic shot swiftly from the
east, over a long 30 degree path and left a 2 second train. The train
dissipated in 2 parts before vanishing completely.
I'll report some exact numbers once the tape is decoded. Now, as the
weather forecast is quite promising, I can look forward to going out
tonight, quite possibly at my darker sky site.
. . . .
Pierre Martin . . * . * . .
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Ottawa Valley Observers Group . . . . . .
Visual meteor observer . . . . -* .
Ottawa, Ontario, CAN . . . . .
home: p.martin@cyberusdot ca / . . . .
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Graphic Designer . | .
National Aviation Museum | \
work: pmartin@nmstcdot ca * . \
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