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(meteorobs) Observation August 6/7 2002
Hi everybody,
The clear dry weather of the first half of August (combined with my
vacations and the New Moon) permitted several nights of productive
observing prior to and including the Perseids maximum. What an
amazing (and exhausting) week this has been...
The first night was August 6/7, observing at a nice wide-open dark
site just north of the town of Cobden (located over an hour's drive
west of Ottawa). The sky was very transparent and crisp, with a
gorgeous Milky Way down in the south. The bulge of the Milky Way in
Sagittarius was faintly visible. It was a very pleasant night to
observe meteors. I recorded 100 meteors within 4.5 hours. The
majority were sporadics but the Perseids were not far behind. The
South Delta Aquarids were surprisingly active. In the early morning,
quite a few swift meteors shot out of the north apex source.
Among the highlights...
At 5:47UT, a faint mag +4 South Delta Aquarid appeared rather
unsusual. Hard to describe... It was as if a wake following gave it
the appearance of a "worm" meteor.
At 3:59UT, a fantastic Perseid meteor shoots about 40 degrees into
Cygnus. It was magnitude -3 and electric blue. It left behind a 6
second train.
At 5:38UT, two faint sporadics appeared only 2 seconds apart.
At 8:20UT, the clear horizon in the east allowed the very old Moon to
be glimpsed in the deep twilight. Only 2 degrees over the horizon.
With the earthshine, and crisp clear atmosphere it was a beautiful
sight.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: August 6/7 2002
BEGIN: 0330 UT (2330 EDT) END: 0823 UT (0423 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.88 West; Lat: 45.63 North Elevation: 50m
City & Province: Cobden, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder --> cord alignment method
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_____________________1848 +58
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________2048 -08
ANT (antihelion source)_________________2144 -12
NDA (North Delta Aquarids)______________2204 -06
SDA (South Delta Aquarids)______________2256 -14
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)_________________2308 -27
PER (Perseids)__________________________0220 +57
napx (sporadics from the north apex)____0244 +30
sapx (sporadics from the south apex)____0244 00
SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT)__FIELD____Teff__LM____SPO_PER_KCG_CAP_ANT_NDA_SDA_PAU_napx_sapx
0330-0437___2312+49__1.00__6.45__10__5___0___0___1___1___2___0____0____0
0437-0537___2358+51__1.00__6.53__11__5___0___0___0___0___3___0____1____0
0537-0645___0138+48__1.00__6.54__13__8___0___0___2___1___1___0____1____0
0645-0753___0330+48__1.00__6.51__13__5___0___0___1___2___0___0____4____0
0753-0823___0330+48__0.50__6.35___2__4___0___0___0___0___1___0____2____1
TOTALS:______________4.50________49_27___0___0___4___4___7___0____8____1 = 100
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: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(1) +1(2) +2(6) +3(11) +4(18) +5(19) +6(1) AVE: +3.79
PER: -3(1) -2(1) -1(0) 0(2) +1(5) +2(3) +3(06) +4(07) +5(02) +6(0) AVE: +2.29
SDA: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(4) +3(00) +4(01) +5(02) +6(0) AVE: +3.14
NDA: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(3) +3(00) +4(01) +5(00) +6(0) AVE: +2.50
ANT: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(01) +4(02) +5(01) +6(0) AVE: +4.00
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
Corresponding F value for this session is 1.00
------------------------
Dead time:
- 23 minutes used for breaks.
- 0 minutes used for plots.
Breaks (UT): 0332-0335, 0431-0435, 0602-0604, 0630-0636, 0730-0738
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