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(meteorobs) Observation July 15/16 2001



On Monday evening, Denis Legault and I went exploring a potential new 
observing site at a lagoon not far from the Casselman site. This site 
is located a few kilometers closer than the other typical site, but 
appears to have slightly darker skies. We'll be asking permission to 
see if we can use this area for observing as it appears to be very 
promising. Nice flat horizons in almost all directions, and quiet 
spot. Hopefully, this could be an alternative east-end site from 
Ottawa in case Casselman is not available or has increasing light 
pollution.

It was an interesting evening. As we waited for the sky to get dark, 
I noticed what appeared like smoke or a diffuse haze along the 
lagoon. As we explored the lagoon... we were horrified. As we got 
closer, the diffuse "haze" resolved into literally millions of 
mosquitoes! It was incredible... we walked through that particular 
area as fast as we could and soon returned back to the original site. 
It seemed like they were all stuck over the lagoon, since the much 
dryer sand where we were really seems to discourage them. Only a few 
brave blood-suckers managed to get to reach us. We could hear several 
ducks and frogs swimming in the lagoon (and even the faint "bzzz" 
from infinite numbers of mosquitoes coming from that eery "haze" out 
in the distance).

There were lots of low clouds, but eventually the sky cleared up 
around midnight and the limiting magnitude to start was near 6.5. 
Denis got busy with his 14" scope, and I settled for meteors. In over 
one hour teff, activity was quite good - especially with the number 
of sporadics! I saw a couple of possible early Perseids, but 
alignment with the current radiant was not really that good. No Alpha 
Cygnids, but some Aquarids and a late July Pegasid.

The highlight was while packing up at the end when Denis and I both 
saw a 3rd magnitude earthgrazing meteor from the SE that shot close 
to 60 degrees through the zenith. On the way back home, we got 
stopped by the police at a roadblock... The officer noticed the 14" 
cannon in the back of the van ("wow" she said). Then, we even had a 
tiny astronomy conversation about Mars.

Pierre Martin



DATE: July 15/16 2001
BEGIN: 3:52 UT (23:52 EDT)  END: 5:00 UT (1:00 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation:100m
City & Province: St-Albert, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS: 3-letter code;    		 	radiant position
              	JPE (July Pegasids)			22h55 +16
		NDA (N. Delta Aquarids)			21h00 -10
		SDA (S. Delta Aquarids)			21h55 -20
		SAG (Sagittarids)			19h50 -20
		CAP (Alpha Capricornids)		19h30 -16
		PAU (Pisces Austrinids)			21h55 -36
		PER (Perseids)				00h45 +51
		ACY (Alpha Cygnids)			20h15 +49
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)   FIELD   	Teff   F     LM    SPO SAG SDA NDA JPE
3:52-5:00    20h38 +21	1.10  1.00  6.45   12   1   1   1   1
--------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:              	1.10		   12   1   1   1   1  =  16
--------------------------------------------------------------
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     1   1   2   3   2   3  	+3.08
SAG     0   0   1   0   0   0	+2.0
SDA     0   0   0   1   0   0	+3.0
NDA     0   0   0   1   0   0   +3.0
JPE	0   1   0   0   0   0   +1.0
---------------------------------
TOTALS: 1   2   3   5   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): 2 minutes for plotting meteors

Breaks: None
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