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(meteorobs) Observation June 24/25 2001



On June 24/25, a number of observers from the Ottawa area were 
graciously invited to join Jean-Paul Bernier for some dark sky 
observing at his place a few kilomters west of Franktown. Several 
telescopes were setup. It was an excellent transparent night, but 
some ground level fog and lots of dew! The limiting magnitude reached 
6.5, and the Milky Way had lots of structure. The only nuisance was 
the abundance of mosquitoes and the humidity kept them for most of 
the night. The croaking from the frogs and a background radio 
(playing "Drops of Jupiter") was quite enjoyable.

With almost 2 hours teff, I recorded 17 meteors (2 Sagittarids, 1 
Theta Ophiuchid, one June Bootid and 13 sporadics of which one came 
from the north apex source). There were a few dramatic meteors worth 
mentioning...

The first one, at 3:10UT was a 30 degrees long **persistent** 
Sagittarid that crawled its way from Ophiuchus to Serpens. It reached 
2nd mag and was bluish. I noticed a wake following behind the meteor 
- something I don't see frequently in slower meteors. At 3:43UT, a 20 
degrees long mag 0 blue sporadic shot like a bullet near Vega and 
left a one second train behind!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: June 24/25 2001
BEGIN: 3:00 UT (23:00 EDT)  END: 5:20 UT (1:20 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.067 West; Lat: 45.045 North  Elevation:100m
City & Province: Franktown, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS: 3-letter code;    		 	radiant position
              	SAG (Sagittarids)			19h00 -20
		TOP (Theta Ophiuchids)			17h35 -17
		JBO (June Bootids)			15h00 +48
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)   FIELD   	Teff   F     LM    SPO napx SAG TOP JBO
3:00-4:12    18h45 +20	1.00  1.00  6.42    6   0    1   1   1
4:12-5:20    19h40 +18	0.85  "	    6.48    6   1    1   0   0
--------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:              	1.85		    12  1    2   1   1  =  17
--------------------------------------------------------------
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  0  +1  +2  +3  +4  +5	AVERAGE

SPO     2   1   3   4   1   2  	+2.54
SAG     0   0   1   0   1   0	+3.0
TOP     0   0   0   0   0   1	+5.0
JBO     0   0   1   0   0   0	+2.0
-----------------------------
TOTALS: 2   1   5   4   2   3
-----------------------------
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): 28.82 minutes total 
including 2.32 minutes for plotting meteors

Breaks: 3:12 to 3:18, 3:21 (30sec), 3:32 to 3:34, 3:59 to 4:00, 4:25 to 4:42
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