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(meteorobs) Observation May 31/June 1 2002
Last Friday was an enjoyable night out at an observing site located
south-west of Ottawa, with the company of several other fellow
amateur astronomers (busy with scopes).
I signed-on for meteors at 3:40 UT (23:40 EDT). Sky conditions
allowed an average limiting magnitude of 6.34 for the first hour.
For the second hour, the combination of haze and moon glow caused the
limiting magnitude to decrease to 6.23. Still, the summer Milky Way
was quite evident rising into the eastern sky. Artificial satellites
were seen every few minutes.
I was setup with my portable "meteor coffin", and spent most of the
time meteor observing. I concentrated on plotting activity from a
few minor radiants active at this time such as the Sagittarids, Chi
Scorpiids, as well as any possible meteors from comet
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3).
Meteor rates appeared to be quite normal for this time of the year.
The highlight was to see occasional Sagittarid meteors producing long
medium speed paths. Among them was a lovely magnitude 0 blue
Sagittarid that crawled toward the zenith, leaving behind a small
wake. The sporadics were mostly on the faint side. No meteors from
SW3 were detected. In two hours of observing time, I logged a
satisfying 10 meteors. It was nice to be under clear skies again.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: May 31/June 1 2002
BEGIN: 0340 UT (2340 EDT) END: 0545 UT (0145 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.0669 West; Lat: 45.0453 North Elevation:50m
City & Province: Franktown, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
SAG (Sagittarids antihelion source)_____1748 -23
SW3 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 activity?)__1420 +36
OSC (Omega Scorpids)____________________1556 -20
SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT)__FIELD____Teff__LM____SPO_SAG_OSC_SW3
0340-0442___1726+20__1.01__6.34__2___2___0___0
0442-0545___1807+28__1.04__6.23__5___1___0___0
TOTALS:______________2.05________7___3___0___0
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: 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(1) +4(3) +5(3) AVE: +4.29
SAG: 0(1) +1(0) +2(0) +3(1) +4(0) +5(1) AVE: +2.66
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: 1.83 minutes (for plots)
Breaks (UT): None
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