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(meteorobs) Observation June 15/16 2001
For the predicted peak night of the June Lyrids on the 15/16, I
observed at Casselman for 3 hours teff after midnight. The sky was
very hazy due to smog and humidity. I believe the night reached a low
of 26C. The Milky Way appeared washed-out, but that was to be
expected. I faced my field of view higher near zenith. At times, even
Mars would completely disappear into patches of haze. The good thing
was the near complete lack of any mosquitoes due to the dryness and
lack of vegetation at the quarry.
I logged 21 meteors. Only one June Lyrid was seen (not much of a
peak), but it turned out to be the highlight-of-the-night... at
4:42UT, the blue magnitude -2 meteor on a long 20 degrees path
flashed at moderate to fast speed below Pegasus and did not have a
train. The plot confirmed it as a June Lyrid.
The Xi Draconids were still active. Lots of satellites as usual,
including iridium flares and some tumbling satelltes.
There was one cow not far from the front entrance when I left at the
end, but I had some leftover donuts to lure it away at a safe
distance.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: June 15/16 2001
BEGIN: 4:00 UT (0:00 EDT) END: 7:35 UT (3:35 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
SAG (Sagittarids) 18h30 -22
JLY (June Lyrids) 18h30 +35
XDR (Xi Draconids) 18h30 +55
TOP (Theta Ophiuchids) 16h50 -17
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO SAG JLY XDR TOP
4:00-5:24 17h17 +33 1.00 1.00 5.97 4 0 0 0 0
5:24-6:33 18h54 +22 1.00 " 6.12 6 1 0 2 0
6:33-7:35 19h51 +22 1.00 " 6.05 6 0 1 1 0
--------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 2.48 16 1 1 3 0 = 21
--------------------------------------------------------------
The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods broken down
as close as possible to one hour of true observing, in Universal
Time. The second column (Field) is the area in in the sky where I
centered my field of view. The third column (TEFF) represents
effective observing time (corrected for breaks or any time I did not
spent looking at the sky). One hour = 1.00 teff. The fourth column
(F) is for sky obstructions (clouds, buildings, ect). No obstructions
= 1.00 but any obstructions will make this number slightly higher.
The 5th column (LM) is the average naked eye limitimg magnitude,
determined by triangle star counts. All following columns indicate
the number of meteors for each shower observed.
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -2 -1 0 +2 +3 +4 +5 AVERAGE
SPO 0 0 0 2 3 6 5 +3.88
XDR 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 +4.33
JLY 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 -2.0
SAG 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 +4.0
---------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 0 0 2 4 7 7
---------------------------------
Note: Magnitude scale is to determine the brightness of sky objects.
Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with the
planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius, magnitude
+2 to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6 to +7 are
the faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark
conditions. A meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a
fireball. The above table contains the magnitudes from all observed
meteors, and the average for showers.
SKY OBSCURED:
None
------------------------
Dead time (amount of time spent not looking up): 34.73 minutes total
including 4.23 minutes for plotting meteors
Breaks: 4:22 to 4:45, 5:28 to 5:34, 6:20 (30sec), 6:25 to 6:26
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