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(meteorobs) Observation July 27/28 2003
The night of July 27/28 started with a few scattered cumulus clouds,
but a brisk northerly wind quickly pushed it away. I was setup for
meteor observing at the Casselman site (just east of Ottawa) for a
few hours. About a dozen of other observers with scopes were also
present there. As soon as the clouds departed late in the evening,
it stayed clear all night with very good transparency. It was
certainly among the better nights that I see at this location.
Observing almost five hours, I recorded 104 meteors. The activity
was quite constant and enjoyable for most of the night with so many
active shower radiants.
The South Delta Aquarids were quite active with 27 seen. No Aquarids
got brighter than mag +2. Some of these would produce long paths,
due to the rather low radiant. The brighter Aquarids would usually
have a yellowish tint and sometimes have an odd "nebulous"
appearance. Perseids rates were low but steady every hour until the
end. The Alpha Cygnids activity was surprising.
There were a few highlights...
At 0619UT, a 20 degrees long sporadic of zero mag appeared with a
nice yellow/orange tint. The strange thing was to see this meteor
very gradually fading away, only to flare up again, and begin to fade
again very slowly to invisibilty. It gave a nebulous appearance.
At 0708UT, a north and a south Delta Aquarids meteors both appeared
exactly simulaneous. What a thrill!
At 0738UT, two bright colorful meteors (mag +1 Alpha cygnid, and a
mag +2 south delta Aquarid) appeared going different directions in
the same sky area only a fraction of a second apart!
The most beautiful meteor of the night was no doubt the vivid *blue*
mag -1 slow-moving Alpha Capricornid, seen at 0745UT. It displayed a
well-defined head and a short wake followed behind.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: July 27/28 2003
BEGIN: 0320 UT (2320 EST) END: 0820 UT (0420 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North Elevation: 50m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align method
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)_______________________2020 -11
NDA (North Delta Aquarids)_____________________2140 -08
SDA (South Delta Aquarids)_____________________2236 -17
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)________________________2240 -30
ACG (Alpha Cygnids)____________________________2040 +49
PER (Perseids)_________________________________0140 +54
ANT/SIA (sporadics from the antihelion)________2116 -15
NPX (sporadics from the north apex)____________0216 +28
SPX (sporadics from the south apex)____________0216 -02
SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT)__FIELD___Teff__LM_____SDA_NDA_CAP_PAU_ACG_PER_ANT_NPX_SPX_SPO
0320-0425__1934+07__1.01__6.40____4___0___3___0___0___1___1___0___0___8
0425-0531__2110+10__1.00__6.45____7___3___0___0___1___2___3___0___0___8
0531-0632__2144+09__1.01__6.48____3___1___0___0___0___2___1___0___0___12
0632-0739__2255+08__1.01__6.45___10___1___0___0___4___2___2___3___1___10
0739-0820__2255+08__0.68__6.26____3___0___1___0___0___2___0___4___0___1
TOTALS:_____________4.71_________27___5___4___0___5___9___7___7___1___39 = 104
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
______-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE
SPO____0___0___2___3___7__13___9__13____+3.34
SDA____0___0___0___0___4___8__10___5____+3.59
NDA____0___0___0___0___1___2___2___0____+3.20
CAP____1___1___0___0___0___2___0___0____+0.75
ANT____0___0___1___0___2___0___4___0____+2.86
ACG____0___0___0___1___2___1___1___0____+2.40
PER____0___0___0___0___2___2___3___2____+3.55
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 entire session.
------------------------
Dead time: 17.49 minutes
Breaks (UT): 0338-0342, 0355 (30sec), 0514-0520, 0524 (20sec), 0601
(20sec), 0715-0721, 0733 (20sec)
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