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(meteorobs) Observation July 27/28 2001
The following morning (July 28), I observed from the Casselman site
for another 3 hours TEFF before dawn. Several observers with
telescopes were also setup there.
What a difference. Under clear magnitude 6.35 skies, the rates were
even more impressive tonight. I counted 101 meteors!! Lots of
sporadics. The South Delta Aquarids had a nice display of faint
meteors with up to 10/hr. The Perseids were surprisingly active for a
total of 17 members. As Lew Gramer mentioned in his report, there was
indeed a few late Alpha Cygnids.
The highlights...
At 5:08UT, a Sigma Capricornid (anthelion) meteor and a south Delta
Aquarid moved in the sky almost simultaneously!
At 5:24UT, s sporadic and south Delta Aquarid only one second apart.
At 6:43UT, a magnitude -3 fireball from the south apex in the western
sky. It was blue, travelled a long 20 degrees very swiftly, and left
behind a 4 second train.
At 6:55UT, a very slow "tear drop" shaped Alpha Capricornid crawled
its way on a long persistent 18 degrees path. It was yellow and
seemed to have a short wake.
At 7:30UT, the zodiacal light in the east was already quite apparent.
At 7:49UT, a tumbling satellite was flashing very rapidly. At 8:05UT,
the three satellites flying in formation were seen and were about 3rd
mag.
Pierre Martin
DATE: July 27/28 2001
BEGIN: 4:43 UT (0:43 EDT) END: 8:05 UT (4:05 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
NDA (N. Delta Aquarids) 21h30 -09
SDA (S. Delta Aquarids) 22h22 -17
SIA (S. Iota Aquarids) 21h25 -18
SIG (Sigma Capricornids - ANTHELION) 20h55 -17
CAP (Alpha Capricornids) 20h03 -12
PAU (Pisces Austrinids) 22h25 -32
PER (Perseids) 01h25 +52
ACY (Alpha Cygnids) 20h36 +49
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff LM SPO SDA PER NDA CAP SIG SIA PAU ACY napx sapx
4:43-5:48 21h10 +10 1.08 6.34 11 9 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 0
5:48-6:53 21h44 +09 1.08 6.38 10 6 6 2 1 0 0 0 1 2 3
6:53-8:05 22h46 +12 1.18 6.31 13 10 10 3 1 1 1 0 2 3 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 3.35 34 25 17 5 3 3 1 0 3
6 4 = 101
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 AVERAGE
SPO 1 0 0 1 2 4 15 13 7 1 +3.30
SDA 0 0 0 0 2 1 5 7 10 0 +3.88
PER 0 0 1 1 1 4 4 3 3 0 +2.76
NDA 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 +3.80
SIG 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 +2.66
ACY 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 +4.0
CAP 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 +1.33
SIA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 +4.0
---------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 1 1 2 5 13 25 30 22 1
---------------------------------------------
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: 1 minute
Breaks: 7:37 (1 min)
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