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(meteorobs) Observation November 7/8 2001
Here is my meteor report for November 7/8. I managed to get over one
hour TEFF for an early evening session until the moonrise. The sky
was very transparent, and the temp hovering near the freezing mark.
For this brief session, I faced south-east to check for activity from
the Taurids. I was plotting.
Despite very good transparency, there seemed to be a bit more natural
airglow overall in the sky. The conditions were still good enough to
allow the faint bulge of the Gegenshein to be glimpsed along the
ecliptic. It was very diffuse but evident from Taurus to Cetus to
Aries.
I waited 15 minutes to see the first meteor, but it was well worth
the wait. From the corner of my eye, I caught a movement about
halfway up in the north-east sky. As I turned my head around, I saw a
fabulous magnitude -4 fireball! The sporadic was nearly pure white
and travelled medium speed, leaving behind a two second train.
A bit more activity came from the southern branch of the Taurids.
One Taurid meteor was magn +2 but nice orange colour. Total of 8
meteors seen. I'm hoping to be able to get out again this weekend
with an increased moonless window.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: November 7/8 2001
BEGIN: 2:15 UT (21:15 EST) END: 3:30 UT (22:30 EST)
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
NTA (North Taurids) 03h58 +21
STA (South Taurids) 03h42 +14
DER (Delta Eridanids) 03h40 -08
SPO (sporadics) -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO STA NTA DER
2:15-3:30 03h11 +19 1.20 1.00 6.34 4 3 1 0
------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1.20 4 3 1 0 = 8
------------------------------------------------------
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 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 AVERAGE
SPO 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 +1.5
STA 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 +3.0
NTA 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 +2.0
---------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 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: 3 minutes (for plots)
Breaks: None
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