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(meteorobs) Observation December 9/10 2001
Last night, I decided to join Denis Legault in Casselman for a late
evening session to start looking for early Geminids. The temperature
was very mild for a December night at -4C, but there was a layer of
frost already. The sky was reasonably clear except for a haze (or
thin clouds) near most horizons.
A soon as I arrived and stepped out of my car, I was greeted by a
wonderful blue magnitude -6 Geminid fireball that flared 3X near the
end of its path!! Denis reported seeing only the flash from the last
burst. That bright fireball must have been a fluke because the rest
of the session had much fainter meteors.
By the time I settled-down in my lawn chair and signed-on, it was
10:37pm (local time). I watched for 2 hours TEFF, and recorded 26
meteors, including 9 Geminids. Other sources of activity included
The Chi Orionids (ecliptids), Monocerotids, Hydrids and a good number
of sporadics.
Highlights inlcuded a nice blue Geminid of mag -1 in the south-east.
Also, the only Hydrid meteor seen was a bit odd... it was fairly
faint at mag +3 but left a sharp and distinct wake that lingered
behind for a few moments.
Conditions for Geminid peak night in Ottawa are not looking good, at this time.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: December 9/10 2001
BEGIN: 3:37 UT (22:37 EDT) END: 5:40 UT (0:40 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
GEM (Geminids) 07h08 +33
MON (Monocerotids) 06h40 +08
XOR (chi Orionids) 06h08 +23
HYD (Sigma Hydrids) 08h20 +02
Napx (north apex) 11h08 +20
Sapx (south apex) 11h08 -10
SPO (sporadics) -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff LM SPO GEM XOR MON HYD napx sapx
3:37-4:37 05h54 +20 1.00 6.15 4 5 1 1 0 / /
4:37-5:40 07h18 +16 1.03 6.20 7 4 2 1 1 / /
-------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 2.03 11 9 3 2 1 / / = 26
-------------------------------------------------------------
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 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 AVERAGE
SPO 0 1 0 1 3 4 2 +3.36
GEM 1 0 1 0 2 3 2 +3.11
XOR 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 +3.33
MON 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 +3.0
HYD 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 +3.0
---------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 1 1 3 6 10 4
---------------------------------
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: 1.33 minutes
Breaks (UT): 4:54 (30sec), 4:57 (30sec), 5:21 (20sec)
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