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(meteorobs) Observation May 2/3 2003



Hi all,

Apologies for posting this meteor report so late (I've been a little 
swamped with various things this month)...

After a lousy and cold winter, earlier this month I finally had my 
first useful meteor session since last December's Geminids.  During 
the first weekend of May, I was attending a dark sky star party 
(called Frozen Banana) out west of Ottawa to try out my new 14.5" 
dobsonian.  The weekend had crystal clear skies, so a perfect chance 
also to just sit back and enjoy some long-overdue meteors.

After spending most of the night with the deep sky enjoying 
spectacular views of galaxies, nebulae and clusters, I settled in my 
lawn chair at 2:30am EDT local time to start watching for early Eta 
Aquarids.  Despite a decent dark sky, no ETAs at all were seen.  The 
first hour had decent sporadics rates with 10 seen, but really not 
much in terms of shower activity.

A lot of faint meteors.  The only one that stood out well was a mag 
-1 sporadic in the western sky.

I signed off at 4:30am EDT, being a little weary and cool but pleased 
to have seen some meteors!

Complete details in the standard NAMN report below...

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario




DATE: May 2/3 2003
BEGIN: 0630 UT (0230 EST)  END: 0830 UT (0430 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -79.368 West; Lat: 46.081 North  Elevation: 50m
City & Province: Powassan, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder - cord align method
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
		ANT (antihelion source - Sagittarids)__________1552 -20
		ETA (Eta Aquarids)_____________________________2232 -01
		napx (sporadics from the north apex)___________2052 -01
		sapx (sporadics from the south apex)___________2052 -31
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)__FIELD____Teff__LM____SPO_ANT_ETA_napx_sapx

0630-0730___1823+21__0.98__6.50__10___0___0____0___0
0730-0830___1928+24__0.88__6.38___3___0___0____1___0

TOTALS:______________1.86________13___0___0____1___0 = 14

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
______-1__+0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE

SPO____1___0___1___1___2___6___3____+3.35


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 (FOV): None

Corresponding F value:  1.00 for this session.
------------------------

Dead time:  1.16 minutes used for plots. 7 minutes for break.

Breaks (UT):  8:00-07
---------------------------------------------------------------------



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