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(meteorobs) Observation October 21/22 2000
On Saturday Oct 21/22, I drove out to Mike Wirth's observatory out
west of Ottawa near Perth. We had crisp clear skies and cooler
temperatures that reached freezing (with frost). I setup my portable
coffin in an open field beside the observatory. Every once in a
while, I had visit from furry friends... curious cats would suddenly
leap inside the coffin and scare the heck out of me, sometimes just
missing landing in my face! The night was pristine with great
transparency (LM=6.6) before moonrise. The zodiacal band was easy and
M33 was naked eye. I took a few breaks during my session as I could
not resist the urge to look at Saturn, Jupiter and M42 through the
18" and 25" scopes - fantastic near perfect "seeing"!! This made well
worth the effort to get out of my warm coffin!
Observing for over 6 hours teff until dawn, I saw 171 meteors (96
Orionids, 8 north Taurids, 3 south Taurids, 6 Epsilon Geminids, 4 Leo
minorids and 54 sporadics).
Orionids were fairly decent... Only 7 minutes after I signed-on, an
impressive blue Orionid earthgrazer appeared. It shot 40 degrees near
the zenith and reached magn 0. Left a 2 sec train behind. Orionid
rates climbed steadily as the radiant got higher. The 5th hour was
the best with 24 Orionids. At 6:52 UT, I saw a pair of faint Orionids
only 0.5 sec apart! Most Orionids were on the faint side with an
average magn of +3.13. They produced only 3 meteors in the negative
numbers. The best Orionid had a magn of -3 and left an 8 sec
persistent train. Another favorite was a green magn -1 Orionid right
right beside the radiant. It was only a degree long and left a sharp
2 sec train that was also green coloured.
The Taurids were active all night, with the northern branch
dominating. Epsilon Geminids were also active. In the morning, I saw
occasional swift moving Leo Minorids. Sporadics seemed pretty normal
(except for lower rates in the 5th hour), and well as decent activity
from the north and south apex sources.
More meteor highlights...
At 4:00 UT, a very slow yellow sporadic of magn -3 crawled near Ursa
Minor. It ended with a small terminal burst. At 5:25 UT, a fantastic
orange magn 0 Leo Minorid earthgrazer appeared. It shot over 80
degrees in the sky and seemed to slow down as it got further down in
the west, due to perspective!
It was quite an enjoyable night!
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: October 21/22 2000
BEGIN: 3:20 UT (23:20 EDT) END: 10:20 UT (6:20 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.307 West; Lat: 44.820 North Elevation:100m
City & Province: Perth, 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
3:20-4:20 02h07 +23 1.00 1.00 6.60 7 0 0 6 1 0 0 0
4:20-5:26 03h14 +21 1.10 " 6.53 7 0 0 10 1 0 0 1
6:05-7:05 03h11 +19 1.00 " 6.33 5 1 3 16 1 0 2 0
7:05-8:05 03h51 +17 1.00 " 6.30 9 3 0 22 2 3 1 1
8:05-9:05 04h39 +15 1.00 " 6.30 3 1 2 24 1 0 1 0
9:10-10:20 05h32 +18 1.16 " 6.30 5 5 3 18 2 0 2 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 6.26 36 10 8 96 8 3 6 4 = 171
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 AVERAGE
SPO 1 1 0 2 2 11 17 16 4 0 +2.85
ORI 1 0 2 1 3 23 25 27 11 3 +3.13
NTA 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 3 0 +3.63
EGE 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0 0 +3.16
LMI 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.75
STA 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 +3.0
----------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 2 1 3 4 7 39 44 50 18 3
----------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
None
------------------------
Dead time: None
Breaks: 5:26-6:05, 9:05-9:10
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