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(meteorobs) Observation October 20/21 2000
Hi to all..., I managed to get three nights of observing in a row for
this weekend's Orionids. On Friday night Oct 20/21, I went to
Casselman for 3 hours teff. I signed-on an hour before midnight, and
continued until clouds rolled in. It was a mild but windy night!! I
was glad to be all comfortable and shielded from the wind in my new
portable meteor coffin. The sky was fairly good with an average
LM=6.3. There was just a bit of fog near the horizons.
Within just one minute of signing-on, an impressive Orionid
earthgrazer appeared! In an instant, it travelled 60 degrees across
the sky near the zenith and reached magn +3. It extinguished further
down in the west. This had me hoping for a good display, but
unfortunately I saw only 8 more faint Orionids until I signed off
(with most seen in the final hour).
Activity from the north and south Taurids was low but steady for the
whole period. Minor activity detected from the Epsilon Geminids and
north apex source. Sporadics were active the first hour, but were
almost absent the final hour with only 3 seen.
There was a couple of highlights....
The best meteor by far was a magnitude -5 blue fireball from the
north apex. It shot 20 degrees and left an 8 seconds persistent
train! Another very impressive sporadic was seen at 3:28 UT. It was a
very slow magn +1 meteor that moved over 20 degrees lasting a good 5
seconds. I had a good look at it, and its golden/orange color was one
of the most vivid I've seen!
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: October 20/21 2000
BEGIN: 2:55 UT (22:55 EDT) END: 6:15 UT (2:15 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) 06h24 +16
NTA (north Taurids) 038 +17
STA (south Taurids) 039 +11
EGE (Epsilon Geminids) 07h04 +27
LMI (Leo Minorids) 10h48 +37
nAPX (north apex sporadics) 07h56 +35
sAPX (south apex sporadics) 07h56 +05
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO nAPX sAPX ORI NTA STA EGE LMI
2:55-3:55 01h54 +20 1.00 1.00 6.30 10 1 0 1 1 1 0 0
3:55-4:56 02h59 +21 1.01 " 6.26 6 1 0 1 1 2 1 0
5:10-6:15 03h30 +12 1.03 " 6.13 3 0 0 7 1 0 0 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 3.04 19 2 0 9 3 3 1 0 = 37
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 AVERAGE
SPO 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 5 5 4 2 +2.52
ORI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 4 0 +3.44
NTA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 +4.0
STA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 +4.3
EGE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 +3.0
--------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 5 13 9 5
--------------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
None
------------------------
Dead time: 3.5 min
Breaks: 4:27 (30sec), 4:56-5:10, 5:47 (1min), 6:03 (2min)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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