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(meteorobs) Observation May 3/4 2002



This was my first meteor session since early February.  This past 
Saturday morning, it was nice to out at it again, and with lots of 
company from fellow amateur astronomers at the Casselman site.  I was 
going after the Eta Aquarids activity and I enjoyed seeing them in 
low numbers.  From 45 degrees latitude, I typically see only a few 
right before dawn.  The very first Aquarid was an impressive 3rd 
magnitude earthgrazer that crossed over 80 degrees to the zenith and 
down into the western sky.

Only one Sagittarid was seen.  Including sporadics, a total of 18 
meteors were recorded in a little over 3 hours teff.

A bit earlier that evening (9:55pm EDT or 01:55 UT), I saw something 
very strange!  At first I noticed a typical 3rd magnitude satellite 
rising slowly from the south-east.  Then what I saw was a weird cloud 
(about 2 deg in dia) following the satellite. As the satellite 
travelled for several minutes toward the north-east, the cloud 
gradually dispersed into a faint 10 deg circular haze.  The satellite 
eventually faded away low in the north-east but I could still see the 
cloud very faintly.  I grabbed my binoculars and continued to monitor 
the glowing cloud as it was now almost at the north-east horizon. 
Could it be that I saw some kind of liquid or gas release coming out 
from a satellite?  Somebody recently suggested that this may have 
been caused by an Ariane rocket that was just launched in French 
Guiana.

It was an enjoyable session.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: May 3/4 2002
BEGIN: 0355 UT (2355 EDT)  END: 0825 UT (0425 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation:50m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
		ABO (Alpha Bootids)_____________________1505 +19
		SAG (Sagittarids antihelion source)_____1535 -18
		ETA (Eta Aquarids)______________________2223 -03
		npx (north apex source)_________________2100 -01
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)__FIELD____Teff__LM____SPO_ETA_SAG_ABO_napx

0355-0500___1622+19__1.03__6.31__5___0___1___0___/
0556-0709___1800+16__1.08__6.23__3___1___0___0___/
0719-0825___2143+58__1.08__5.94__2___4___0___0___2

TOTALS:______________3.19________10__5___1___0___2

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

SPO: -1(1) 0(1) +1(0) +2(1) +3(1) +4(6) +5(2) +6(0) AVE: +3.16
ETA: -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(1) +3(3) +4(0) +5(1) +6(0) AVE: +3.20
ANT: -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(0) +4(0) +5(1) +6(0) AVE: +5.00

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 (last column) for showers.

SKY OBSCURED:
None
------------------------

Dead time: 12.58 minutes (incl 3.33 min for plots)

Breaks (UT): 0419(0.75min), 0500-0556, 0626(0.5min), 0628-0636, 0709-0719
---------------------------------------------------------------------




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