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(meteorobs) Observation Oct 18/19 1999



Hello everyone,

Last night (Oct 18/19), I made it out to Casselman to spend the 
entire night there. Forecast was for clear and the sky indeed looked 
good. I arrived in the early evening to join a local observer (Rock 
Mallin) who was testing a new homemade digital video camera on a 16in 
scope (with fascinating results!). Once he left well before midnight, 
the moon was still very high, so I slept for a few hours to wait 
until it went down. Then I was hoping to get 3 or 4 hours of meteor 
recording. When I woke up at 2:00 (local), the moon was gone, and the 
sky obviously much more darker and all full of stars. Suddenly, an 
Orionid meteor flashed into the west, and it was time to sign on.

Soon after signing on at 6:10 UT, I saw clouds unexpectedly creeping 
up from the west. They created just a minor obstruction near the end 
of my first period. I was forced to face away into other parts of the 
sky to keep the obstructions as small as possible. At the end, the 
sky got completely cloudy and forced me to hold for 45 minutes before 
things improved again. I began my second period at 7:59 UT with 
apparently clear conditions, but it turned into a complete failure. 
After 16 minutes, a cloud bank came quickly and clouded over again. 
35 minutes later, things finally got better again! I was now debating 
whether it would be worth to continue these attempts, as dawn would 
come in a little more than an hour. I chose to try again and this 
time I had more success. Although I had to battle some variable 
clouds, it was clear enough to complete a second full hour of teff. 
In between the clouds, the sky was among the fine nights I have seen 
at Casselman with average magnitude 6.3 (from counting Perseus, 
Taurus and Pegasus triangles). The winter Milky Way and zodiacal 
light were quite easily visible.

The first hour had meteor rates I would expect under the slight cloud 
cover I had, with 16 seen. The first meteor recorded was a Epsilon 
Geminid, and 2 more were seen during that hour. The Orionids produced 
5 meteors, with a few nice bright ones (but no fireballs). The 
highlight of that hour was a magnitude +1 blue-green Orionid leaving 
a bright one second train. Another Orionid was seen on the corner of 
my eye with a magn. 0, and with a slight burst at the end. One faint 
N. Taurid was also seen, in addition to a handful of sporadics.

The second (failed) period of 16 minutes had more interesting 
meteors. In fact, this "unofficial" period had (of course) the 
highlight-of-the-night...a magnitude -1 Orionid with one second 
train. Another neat one was a one degree long magn. +1 Orionid close 
to the radiant, appearing bluish and leaving a short but bright 2 
second train.

For the last (full hour teff) until dawn, the Orionids were really 
productive with 16 meteors seen despite some clouds (sometimes 5% to 
15% of my FOV). Many ORI were now faint, with quite a few as magn. +3 
(as opposed to Bob's report). One more highlight was a magnitude -1 
sporadic low in the south-west moving slowly into a cloud. I suspect 
its zenithal magnitude would have been around -3 or so. The S. 
Taurids, Epsilon Geminids and Oct. Delta Aurigids were weakly active. 
The NTA were not seen this hour. Sporadics continued with the same 
activity. While I was on a break near 9:31 UT (and casualy watching), 
I may have seen a possible Leo Minorid.

At the end, my aluminium survival tarp on top of my sleeping bag and 
heavy winter gear was completely covered with a thick layer of frost, 
and the wind made it feel quite icy cold (-6C temp.). Overall, this 
was quite an enjoyable night despite the annoying clouds. A total of 
44 were seen (without counting all those seen "unofficially".). I was 
not plotting all meteors so I would not miss as much activity. I'm 
hoping maybe for clear skies on the 20/21 night, but all the rest of 
the week here has a poor weather outlook.

Full report and plots to be mailed at NAMN.
 


DATE: October 18/19 1999
BEGIN: 6:10 UT (2:10 EDT)  END: 10:10 UT (6:10 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation:100m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS: 3-letter code;    		 	radiant position
                 ORI (Orionids)	         		06:10 +15
		EGE (Epsilon Geminids)			06:45 +27
		NTA (north Taurids)			02:17 +14
		STA (south Taurids)			02:30 +10
		DAO (Oct. Delta Aurigids)		06:40 +49
		LMI (Leo minorids)			10:17 +38
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)   FIELD   Teff   F      LM     SPO ORI EGE STA NTA DAO
6:10-7:15    SE70    1.01  1.03    6.30    7   5   3   0   1   0
8:49-10:10   S70     1.02  1.08    6.30    8   16  1   2   0   1
----------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:              2.03                 15   21  4   2   1   1  =  44
----------------------------------------------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER -1   0  +1  +2  +3  +4  +5  +6	AVERAGE

SPO     1   0   0   1   3   4   5   1	+3.8
ORI     0   1   2   0   9   4   5   0	+3.3
EGE     0   0   0   1   0   1   2   0 	+4.0
STA	0   0   0   0   0   2   0   0   +4.0
NTA     0   0   0   0   0   0   1   0   +5.0
DAO     0   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   +1.0
--------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1   1   3   2  12  11  13   1
--------------------------------------------

SKY OBSCURED:

5% from 6:48 to 7:15
5% from 8:49 to 9:00
5% from 9:17 to 9:35
15% from 9:35 to 9:45
10% from 9:45 to 9:50
5% from 9:50 to 9:55
------------------------

Total dead time: 22.48 minutes (plotting time, breaks)
Dead time plots: 15 plots --> total time plotting: 6.65 minutes
Breaks: 7:15-8:49, 9:20-9:35, 9:56 (20sec), 10:01 (30sec)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

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