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(meteorobs) Observation October 8/9 2001
Here is my report for the evening of Oct 8/9. I watched from the
Casselman site for 2 hours TEFF until moonrise. I had the company of
five other local observers (Denis Legault, Colin Banfield, Dorothy
Wilson, Michael Vasseur and William Skallerup) who were busy with
binoculars and scopes.
The Milky Way was fairly impressive overhead, but my field of view
had a lower than usual sky quality due to a number of factors. I
wanted to face toward Draco, so that meant the city glow from Ottawa
interfered a bit. There was also noticably more overall sky glow due
to a moderately bright aurora. Every once in a while, some greenish
curtains and spikes would developp low in the north. At other times,
a diffuse glow was extending at least halfway up to Polaris.
As mentioned earlier, no Draconids (Giacobinids) activity, but fairly
good sporadics rates. The surprise was the large number of fourth
magnitude meteors. I plotted most activity.
The highlight was a beautiful orange colored Taurid meteor that was
well seen. It was 1st magnitude and slow moving. Since it was a long
way from its radiant and away from my field, there was no way to tell
whether it was a northern or southern branch.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: October 8/9 2001
BEGIN: 0:15 UT (20:15 EDT) END: 2:44 UT (22:44 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
GIA (Giacobinids) 17h28 +54
TAU (Taurids - ANT) 01h56 +11
DAU (Delta Aurigids) 06h04 +49
napx (north apex) 06h56 +38
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff LM SPO GIA TAU DAU napx
0:15-1:20 18h02 +44 1.04 6.20 8 0 0 0 0
1:39-2:44 19h19 +43 1.06 6.08 9 0 1 0 0
---------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 2.10 17 0 1 0 0 = 18
---------------------------------------------------
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
(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 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 AVERAGE
SPO 0 1 3 10 3 +3.88
TAU 1 0 0 0 0 +1.0
-------------------------
TOTALS: 1 1 3 10 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: 3.65 minutes (for plots)
Breaks: 1:20-1:39 UT
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