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(meteorobs) Observation August 10/11 2002
On August 10, I joined several observers setup at a site near
Morewood (located just south-east of Ottawa). A number of people
were even camping for the nite with tents and about a dozen scopes
spread across the observing site. The sky transparency was "average"
and there was a few passing cirrus clouds but nothing too serious.
My limiting magnitude was around 6.30.
In nearly four hours teff, I recorded 115 meteors. The Perseids were
now more than twice as strong as the sporadics background. It made
for some enjoyable activity, including a few spectacular meteors. I
was running a few cameras throughout the night, including some guided
and some unguided.
Among the highlights...
At 3:37UT, a spectacular Perseid fireball plunges down into
Sagittarius. It reached magnitude -4, a vivid blue color. It
travelled 20 degrees and left behind a glowing persistent train for
15 seconds!
At 6:38UT, a dazzling magnitude -6 sporadic fireball at the zenith!!
It was well seen... a vivid blue, travelling medium speed. It
produced a triple terminal flash, ending with a break-up of 3-4 small
fragments. Bright enough to cast shadows on the ground. That was
certainly the highlight-of-the-night.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: August 10/11 2002
BEGIN: 0320 UT (2320 EDT) END: 0757 UT (0357 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.28 West; Lat: 45.18 North Elevation: 50m
City & Province: Morewood, Ontario, 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
0320-0404___2250+24__0.73__6.30___6__11__0___0___1___0___1___0____0____0
0445-0545___2344+29__1.00__6.27___8__14__1___0___0___1___1___0____0____0
0545-0646___0057+23__1.01__6.27___8__19__0___1___1___2___0___0____1____0
0646-0757___0153+29__1.15__6.22___8__18__0___0___2___1___2___0____6____2
TOTALS:______________3.89________30__62__1___1___4___4___4___0____7____2 = 115
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: -2(1) -1(0) 0(0) +1(2) +2(03) +3(05) +4(20) +5(7) AVE: +3.33
PER: -2(0) -1(0) 0(2) +1(7) +2(15) +3(13) +4(16) +5(8) AVE: +2.84
SDA: -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(00) +4(01) +5(3) AVE: +4.75
NDA: -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(01) +3(00) +4(02) +5(1) AVE: +3.75
ANT: -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(00) +4(03) +5(1) AVE: +4.25
CAP: -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(01) +3(00) +4(00) +5(0) AVE: +2.0
KCG: -2(0) -1(0) 0(0) +1(0) +2(00) +3(01) +4(00) +5(0) AVE: +3.0
** Note: A sporadic of magnitude -6, and a Perseid of magnitude -4
were also seen **
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:
- 2.41 minutes used for breaks.
- 0 minutes used for plots.
Breaks (UT): 0404-0445, 0524 (30sec), 0608 (30sec), 0659 (45sec),
0704 (30sec), 0719 (20sec)
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