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(meteorobs) October 23/24 1998 observation
Hello,
I observed 2 more nights to see the late Orionids activity.
On October 23/24, I headed out to my dark Casselman site to observe
almost 4 hours teff until approaching dawn. It was a warmer than
usual night, with temperature well above 0, after a indian-summer
like day in Ottawa, ON. Although it was clear the whole period,
the sky was hazy from all the humidity. This reduced my limiting
magnitude to about 6.25. Still, it was a fine quiet night, this time
without a breeze. Meteor rates were still very good with a total
120 meteors. Best Orionids hour produced 20 meteors. Also active,
was fine activity from both branch of the Taurids, producing some
slow meteors. Only two faint meteors appeared from the Epsilon Geminids.
There was several highlights. Best Orionid was magnitude -3 that
came right out of the radiant, only 2 degrees long. It ended with
a small flash and 2 second persistent train. The S.Taurids had a mix
of bright and faint meteors. The brighter one was a white -2 that
left 1 second train. It wavered slightly on its path, probably the
meteoroid spinning as it entered the atmosphere. More interesting
events.....8:14, two meteors exactly simultaneous travel close
together on opposite directions....8:47, three Orionids in
only 5 seconds....9:03, a curious "bouncing" sporadic that goes "on"
and "off" over 20 degrees lenght. Certainly another memorable night
under nature's fireworks.
DATE: October 23/24 1998
BEGIN: 4:55 UT (12:55 EDT) END: 9:20 UT (5:20 EDT)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North Elevation:100m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
---------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not watched.
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO ORI STA NTA EGE
4:55-6:15 SE60 1.10 1.00 6.2 8 11 4 0 0
6:26-7:29 " 1.00 " 6.25 9 19 1 1 1
7:29-8:34 " 1.00 " 6.23 14 20 0 1 1
8:34-9:20 " 0.77 " 6.27 12 15 1 2 0
------------------------------------------------------------
Totals: 3.87 43 65 6 4 2 = 120
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5
SPO 0 0 0 1 0 3 11 22 6
ORI 1 0 2 2 2 11 20 16 11
STA 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1
NTA 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 1
EGE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
-----------------------------------------
Totals: 1 1 3 4 2 17 32 41 19
-----------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED: none
-----------------------------------------------------
Total dead time: 22 minutes (including plotting time)
Dead time plots: 1 minute per plots
Breaks:
UT 5:20-5:33
6:15-6:26
6:56 (-30 sec)
8:03-8:06
. . . .
Pierre Martin . . * . * . .
******************************** . . . \ | . .
NAMN Visual meteor observer . . . . . .
RASC Ottawa - meteor coordinator . . . . -* .
Ottawa Valley Astronomy and . . . . .
Observers Group / . . . .
******************************** * . . .
Graphic Designer . | .
home: p.martin@cyberusdot ca | \
work: pmartin@nmstcdot ca * . \
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