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(meteorobs) Observation August 8/9 2002
The second night spent at the La Verendrye Forest Reserve was even
better. This time, we enjoyed "above average" transparency, and
there was no cirrus clouds. The atmosphere was very crisp. My
limiting magnitude reached 7.30 for me, and on a regular basis all
night long - a truly incredible night!! The darkest sky that I've
ever experienced!! The sky was so dark that the Milky Way would cast
a shadow. The bulge of Milky Way in Ophiuchus was brilliant and full
of dark dust lanes. M33 was a very obvious naked eye patch of fuzzy
light in Triangulum. Every once in a while, I had to re-orient
myself in the different areas of the sky due to the sheer number of
stars visible. I've also never seen so many faint stars visible all
the way down to the horizon. During this night, I took a few breaks
from meteor observing as the lure of some deep sky observing was too
hard to resist (there was an 18" truss dob and a 10" newtonian setup
right beside me).
In a little over 3 hours teff, I recorded 106 meteors. The Perseid
activity was now above the sporadics background. The final hour was
especially enjoyable with a surge of as many as 18 Perseids. Again,
a fair amount of swift meteors coming from the north apex source.
Other minor showers were also active in small numbers (Delta
Aquarids, Kappa Cygnids, Capricornids and antihelion source).
Among the highlights...
At 4:34UT, a gorgeous slow moving sporadic fireball of magnitude -3.
It was slow moving, a vivid golden-yellow color. After a dramatic 30
degrees path, it fragmented in small pieces!! WOW!!
At 7:02UT, a pair of near simultaneous Perseids shot in different
directions. They were mag +1 and +2, leaving behind brief wakes of
ionization. They seemed to "define" the radiant.
At 7:52UT, a faint but beautiful Capricornid meteor. It was slow but
persistent. It crawled a long 25 degrees path.
At 8:08UT, a brilliant, yellow magnitude -3 Perseid shot 20 degrees,
ending in a small terminal flash. It left behind a 3 second
persistent train.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: August 8/9 2002
BEGIN: 0400 UT (0000 EDT) END: 0810 UT (0410 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.29' West; Lat: 46.59' North Elevation: 1300 feet
City & Province: Reserve Faunique La Verendrye, Quebec, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder --> cord alignment method
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_____________________1856 +58
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________2116 -06
ANT (antihelion source)_________________2212 -10
NDA (North Delta Aquarids)______________2224 -05
SDA (South Delta Aquarids)______________2316 -13
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)_________________2332 -26
PER (Perseids)__________________________0304 +58
napx (sporadics from the north apex)____0312 +32
sapx (sporadics from the south apex)____0312 +02
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
0400-0509___2250+24__1.01__7.30__12__10__1___0___0___0___0___0____1____0
0509-0533___0008+29__0.39__7.30__03__04__1___0___0___0___0___0____1____0
0610-0712___0111+21__1.00__7.30__09__13__0___0___0___1___2___0____5____0
0712-0810___0311+19__0.96__7.20__12__18__1___1___1___1___3___0____3____3
TOTALS:______________3.36________36__45__3___1___1___2___5___0___10____3 = 106
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(1) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(06) +3(05) +4(11) +5(21) +6(5) AVE: +4.14
PER: -3(1) -2(0) -1(0) 0(1) +1(8) +2(10) +3(10) +4(07) +5(06) +6(2) AVE: +2.77
SDA: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(01) +4(00) +5(02) +6(2) AVE: +5.0
NDA: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(01) +4(00) +5(01) +6(0) AVE: +4.0
KGC: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(01) +3(00) +4(01) +5(01) +6(0) AVE: +3.66
CAP: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(00) +4(01) +5(00) +6(0) AVE: +4.0
ANT: -3(0) -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(00) +4(01) +5(00) +6(0) AVE: +4.0
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
Corresponding F value for this session is 1.00
------------------------
Dead time:
- 11.33 minutes used for breaks.
- 0 minutes used for plots.
Breaks (UT): 0408 (30sec), 0430 (30sec), 0439-0446, 0457 (30sec),
0509 (30sec), 0533-0610, 0613 (20sec), 0619 (1.5min), 0732 (30sec)
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