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(meteorobs) Draconids and snowfall in Ottawa, Ontario
It was a weird night.
The weather for October 7/8 did not look promising at all for the
Ottawa, Ontario region. The most optimistic forecasts called for
variable clouds, windy, cold and a chance of flurries!! Well late
last night, I got a call from Cathy Hall and she managed to drag me
out to join her for late night observing just in case we'd get lucky
and have clear breaks. At the very least, I would finally get to see
the Baxter site just south of Ottawa near Manotick.
After loading up warm winter and meteor gear in Cathy's truck, we
took off and arrived at the site around midnight. The sky was
overcast and the Moon barely visible through the thin layer of
clouds. It felt very cold!!! The temperature was still 4C but strong
gusts of wind in the open field made this feel more like -6C! It was
enough to freeze fingers within minutes without gloves. So we took
our time and waited out for a while...
The sky eventually began to break up in the west and more stars came
out... an encouraging sign. A couple of meteors were seen. One of
them was a short 4th magnitude that seemed to come out of the GIA
radiant, but it moved a bit too fast to be a true member. We decided
to get our lawn chairs and setup our sleeping bags, charts, recorders
and talking clocks and attempt a "sign-on". By the time we got on, it
was 100% clear! The sky was quite decent with 6th magn stars
glimpsed. Too bad it didn't last because after just 15 minutes or so,
a bank of clouds quickly moved in. It was now solid overcast all
over. We packed gear in the truck and went for a nap. But just as as
we got things settled, I took a quick glance outside the window
and... it was all clear! I have no idea how clouds can dissipate this
quickly! So we hurried to get our gear out the truck and setup once
again in our sleeping bags for another "sign-on". This one lasted
maybe 12 minutes and we had a few nice meteors (Delta Aurigids,
anthelions, sporadics but no Draconids). Then, clouds and haze
unexpectably came in from all directions. We were forced to sign-off
and pack things up once again. This time, it looked like
precipitation clouds coming to us! It was thick enough to hide every
star and planets. Just as we got comfortable inside Cathy's truck for
a good nap, the same inexplicable pattern happened... it cleared
up!!! This time we were not fooled so quickly. It was now well past
4am, and dawn would be approaching soon. We simply viewed casually
during that final clear break to reassure each other that a bright
Draconid storm was not in progress. Actually, no Draconid activity
seen at all.
Later that morning as we headed back to town, we got to see the very
first snowfall. Large snowflakes coming down from a thin haze in the
blue sky. It was very strange to see that! At the very least we can
confirm nothing out of the ordinary for Draconids rates between the
hours 0h00 and 4h30 (eastern daylight time) for eastern North America.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
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