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(meteorobs) Observation May 5/6 2001
Following an evening public astronomy session I attended this past
Saturday evening, I decided to head out to Casselman for some early
morning meteor observing. The nearly Full Moon was a serious nuisance
for dark sky sites, but the Eta Aquarids meteor shower was only a day
past its maximum so I was curious to see the activity under a clear
sky.
I never expect to see Eta Aquarids in numerous numbers from 45
degrees latitude, since the radiant never has time to reach a
suitable altitude before morning twilight. However, seeing just a few
few Aquarids is neat, since they often produce long earthgrazing
paths!
I observed the last hour until dawn from 7:30UT to 8:40UT. I faced
south-east and my field of view was near zenith to get the darkest
area in the sky. The Moon was low in the west, and I had my car
behind me to hide its glare. Despite the lunar interference, the sky
transparency was surprisingly good. I could occasionally glimpse a
5.7 magnitude star. My average limit magnitude for the session was
5.32.
In 1.13 hours teff (effective observing time), I logged 5 meteors
which included 3 Eta Aquarids and 2 sporadics. Not much, but the
quality of the meteors more than made up for the small numbers... The
very first meteor, an Eta Aquarid was seen only one minute after I
signed "on". It was a long 20 degrees magn +2 streak. As morning
twilight began in the east, a couple of very nice meteors appeared,
and made me yell "ohhh!" all alone. At 4:10 EDT, a gorgeous magn -1
vivid blue Aquarid shot like a bullet through Cygnus. It left a 1 sec
train. Then, at 4:29 EDT, a fabulous orange/pink magn -1 Aquarid shot
toward Cygnus with a path close to 20 degrees. The high velocity
almost gave it the illusion of being "closer", and I jumped in my
chair. I got both plotted.
I officially "signed off" at 4:40 EDT as the sky was becoming too
bright for useful observations. For fun, I decided to keep watching
the zenith just in case even though I could only make out a small
handful of trhe brightest stars... Well, much to my delight another
Aquarid flashed at the zenith at exactly 4:58 EDT. It was about
magnitude +0.5 and yellow. It was neat to see a meteor going through
a deep blue sky.
A couple of iridium satellites were seen at 4:02 and 4:09 EDT. They
appeared both at the same spot 10 degrees over the east, one at magn
-3 and the other at -1. On the way back home, I was treated to the
nearly Full Moon setting over the 417... nice touch!
Standard report will be forwarded to NAMN. Summary below.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: May 5/6 2001
BEGIN: 7:30 UT (3:30 EDT) END: 8:40 UT (4:40 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
ETA (Eta Aquarids) 337 -2
WCA (May Capricornids) 21h00 -21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO ETA WCA
7:30-8:40 18h54 +36 1.13 1.00 5.32 2 3 0 = 5
--------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 AVERAGE
SPO 0 0 0 0 0 2 +4.0
ETA 2 0 0 1 0 0 0.0
-----------------------------
TOTALS: 2 0 0 1 0 2
-----------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
None
------------------------
Dead time: 2.33 min (plots)
Breaks: none
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes: Field of view was temporarily EAST at 60deg high, from 7:30 to 7:40 UT.
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