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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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