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(meteorobs) June Lyrids...



Greetings all,

Got several nights of observation in this past week, in spite of work 
pressures and a rather inconveniently timed eye problem.

Tuesday night, June 12/13, I was too exhausted to do visual... so ran 
camera all night instead, from the ledge on my bedroom window.  Took a 
complete series of shots, averaging about 22 minutes each in length, from 
3.10 UT until 8.06 UT, using a 55mm lens at f1.7 and Kodak Ektachrome 320T 
film, which I already had in the camera.  Its colour balance is not normal, 
but it tends to counteract sky fog and any light pollution much better than 
daylight balanced film.  I am taking it in for development tomorrow.  Not 
holding my breath on picking up any meteors that night on film, as it is 
hard to do with minor showers, but at least it made me feel somewhat 
useful, seeing as how I couldn't stay up all night.

On Friday night, June 15/16, after the eye was back to normal, I got in 
almost 4 hours observing, which was enjoyable.  I called 2 June Lyrids, at 
5.22 and 5.23 UT.  No xi Draconids were seen.  I must have seen about 100 
fireflies over the night, ranging in magnitude from about 2 to -4, both 
white ones and neon green ones.  I did see one interesting flash at 6.36 UT 
outside my field of view - and my glasses - so couldn't be sure as to its 
nature, firefly or not.  Interesting enough, it came from Lyra.  The air 
was very humid, making the Milky Way rather fuzzy.  Airplanes coming in on 
the Ottawa glide path lit up long beacons in the moist air.  There were a 
lot of satellites visible too, and it was interesting to track down their 
identify after the observing session.

The report has been forwarded to Mark Davis at NAMN, and is also included 
below for those interested in the details.

Clear skies,
Cathy Hall
south of Ottawa, Canada


NAMN Visual Observing Form:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DATE: June 15/16 2001 BEGIN: 3.50 UT END: 7.45 UT
OBSERVER: Cathy Hall (HALCA)
LOCATION: Long: 75 30' 7.5" West; Lat: 45 14' 18.3" North
City & State: Metcalfe, Ontario, Canada
Elevation: 315 feet
RECORDING METHOD: Tape Recorder
---------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:
SAG 270 -23 (RA 18h 0m, Dec -23) 30 km/sec
JLY 279 +35 (RA 18h 36m, Dec +35), 31 km/sec
and any possible:
"XID" Xi Draconids 279 +55 (RA 18h 36m, Dec +55), fast
"ARI" daytime Arietids 051 +29 (RA 3h 24m, Dec +29), medium
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS:
0 = None seen; / = shower not watched.
(UT)
PERIOD FIELD TEFF F LM SAG JLY 'XID' 'ARI' SPO
3.50-4.50 21h20m+55 1.00 1.05 5.43  1 0 0 0 0
4.50-5.50 20h00m+55 1.00 1.05 5.63 0 2 0 0 4
5.50-6.50 21h00m+50 1.00 1.05 5.77  0 0 0 0 5
6.50-7.45 21h00m+50   .92 1.05 5.60  0 0 0 0 2

Total Meteors: 14
Total TEFF: 3.92 hours
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER +3 +4 +5 TOTAL MEAN
SAG        1   0  0     1     3.00
JLY         0   1  1    2      4.50
"XID"       0   0   0     0      n/a
"ARI"       0   0  0     0      n/a
SPO         6   4   1    11     3.55
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
5 % FROM: 3.50 UT to 7.45 UT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEAD TIME: .47 min
BREAKS: none
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LIMITING MAGNITUDE:
          STAR STAR
TIME AREA COUNT LM
3.50   14      9      5.3
4.30   14     11    5.5
5.00   14     11    5.5
5.30   14     12    5.7
6.00   14     12     5.7
6.30   14     12    5.7
7.00   14     13    5.9
7.30   14     11    5.5
7.45   14      10    5.4
MEAN LIMITING MAGNITUDE: 5.58
------------------------------------------------------------------------
METEOR DATA:
    (UT)         SPEED
# TIME MAG (1-5) CLR TRAIN SHR DCV/LEN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. 4.42  3.0     3    W      SAG 40/8
2. 5.02  3.0     3    W      SPO 30/8
3. 5.04  4.0     3    W      SPO 35/5
4. 5.22  4.5     4    W      JLY 30/8
5. 5.23  4.5     3    W      JLY 30/2
6. 5.34  3.5     3    W      SPO 0/25
7. 5.34  4.5     2    W      SPO 30/4
8. 6.03  3.0     4    W      SPO 0/15
9. 6.31  3.5     3    W      SPO 30/9
10. 6.33  3.0   4    W      SPO 0/8
11. 6.39 4.5   3    W      SPO 30/10
12. 6.50  3.5   3    W      SPO 10/10
13. 7.14  3.0   3    W      SPO 20/20
14. 7.38  3.5   4    W      SPO 10/12

SPEED (VELOCITY) SCALE:
0 = Stationary
1 = Very Slow
2 = Slow
3 = Medium
4 = Fast
5 = Very Fast
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
REMARKS:

Meteors:
- although June Lyrids were not plotted, both meteors #4 and #5 came from 
very close to about 18h 36m +35, the equilateral point formed with the 
right side of Lyra; meteor #5 was short, in Lyra, and very close to the 
radiant; meteor #4 was longer and was seen much further from the radiant
- meteors #12 at 6.50 UT and #13 at 7.14 UT were from the northern apex area
- 6.36 UT - bright flash seen to right of Lyra, headed to below Lyra, but 
only seen with averted vision outside my field of view - probability high 
that it was a firefly as there were (perhaps) close to 100 firefly 
sightings during the night; could not say without doubt that it was a meteor

General Comments:
- recording time/meteor: 2 sec
- DCV is distance of meteor from centre of view
- LEN is length of meteor in degrees
- temperature warm, 26C, humidex 31C
- lots of mosquitoes until temperature declined a bit in early morning hours
- large number of white and neon green fireflies all night, ranging in 
magnitude from about 2 to -4
- sky mushy due to high humidity, but Milky Way visible all night, and 
Scutum cloud

Satellites visible:
- 4.06 UT, mag 1, from below Rasalhague over towards Vega, possibly Cosmos 
1500
- 4.12 UT, mag 2, from over top wing star of Cygnus towards Lyra, possibly 
Cosmos 1842
- 4.31 UT, mag 3, from under lower wing of Cygnus
- 4.46 UT, mag 4, through Cygnus and under Vega
- 4.47 UT, mag 4, over head of Draco towards Rasalhague, confirmed as 
Cosmos 2228
- 4.52 UT, mag 5, from head of Draco
- 5.17 UT, mag 2.5, from Vega towards star of Cepheus nearest Polaris, 
confirmed as Cosmos 1093 Rocket
- 5.22 UT, mag 2, from Cygnus to Cassiopeia, confirmed as Lacrosse 2
- 5.36 UT, mag 4.5, from below end star of Cygnus towards Deneb, confirmed 
as Cosmos 1666
- 5.42 UT, mag 1, from Ophiuchus to Vega
- 6.03 UT, mag 3.5, from Rasalhague to Vega, confirmed as Cosmos 2297 Rocket
- 7.05 UT, mag 4.5, from Deneb to base of Cepheus, confirmed as Cosmos 1758 
Rocket
- 7.16 UT, mag 3, from Hercules to Rasalgethi, either Cosmos 426 Rocket or 
Helios 1A
- 7.35 UT, mag 2.5, from pointers of Ursa Minor to top of Cygnus, confirmed 
as Meteor 1-7 Rocket
- Note: satellites checked after observing session using
www.heavens-above.com to determine their identity, if listed on the site

<end>


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