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(meteorobs) Observation June 3/4 2002
Last night was another enjoyable late-night session at the Casselman
site. Near midnight, I joined Frank Bayerl (with 8" SCT), Joe
Silverman (with 5" SCT) and Peter Cliche (with 12.5" dob). Once
again, I was setup for a couple hours of meteor observing. When I
arrived near midnight, the sky conditions were only slightly hazy and
more humid compared to the previous night, but the sky gradually
improved as the night went on. My average limiting magnitude was a
little more than 6.3, and the Milky Way around Cygnus was quite
detailed.
Just as I was all setup in my reclining chair ready to "sign-on", I
reached into my meteor bag to grab my clipboard... but was very
embarassed to realize I had forgotten it home. I had no plotting
charts whatsoever, so for this session I had to reply on the cord
alignment entirely. Fortunately, I had memorized the radiant
positions before I left home.
In two hours teff, I recorded 14 meteors. This session was
interesting since it marked the very first time I observed some
definite activity from the Omega Scorpids! Despite their low rates,
the Omega Scorpids' very slow velocity made it easier to identify
them. The Sagittarids were not nearly as active on this night with
only one very faint member seen.
The finest meteor was one of the Omega Scorpids seen at 1:13 EDT
(local time). It was a VERY slow moving meteor with a well defined
head. It crawled a long path in the western sky, taking as long as
4-5 seconds to cross about 20 degrees. It's persistence meant I had
plenty of time to turn my head and stare at the meteor directly. It
was very steady magnitude -1 almost pure white, and without any train
at all (it looked just like a roman candle firework). Then, near the
end of its path, it suddenly burst and fragmented into a shower of
sparks!! Wow!!!!
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: June 3/4 2002
BEGIN: 0400 UT (0000 EDT) END: 0601 UT (0201 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North Elevation:50m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: Visual "cord alignment" only (no plotting)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
SAG (Sagittarids antihelion source)_____1748 -23
SW3 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 activity?)__1420 +36
OSC (Omega Scorpids)____________________1556 -20
napx (north apex sporadics)_____________2248 +09
SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT)__FIELD____Teff__LM____SPO_OSC_SAG_SW3_napx
0400-0500___1625+14__1.00__6.31__7___1___1___0___/
0500-0601___1735+12__1.01__6.33__4___1___0___0___0
TOTALS:______________2.01________11__2___1___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: -1(0) 0(0) +1(1) +2(2) +3(3) +4(2) +5(3) AVE: +3.36
OSC: -1(1) 0(0) +1(1) +2(0) +3(0) +4(0) +5(0) AVE: +0
SAG: -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(0) +4(0) +5(1) AVE: +5.0
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: 0.83 minutes (for breaks)
Breaks (UT): 4:00 (20 sec), 5:07 (30 sec)
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