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(meteorobs) Observation October 19/20 2003



This past Monday morning, I had an enjoyable meteor session at the 
Casselman site, east of Ottawa.  By the time I arrived late in the 
evening, I was greeted by a few observers and scopes.  The air was cool 
and almost at the freezing mark with a slight breeze.  I setup one of 
the walls from my coffin to help sheild the wind.  For this night, I 
brought my -40C rated sleeping bag.  Barely half an hour into the 
watch, I had to remove layers since I had overdressed a bit too much.  
I signed on at 3:33UT (23:33EDT), and kept at it until 9:50UT (5:50EDT) 
for almost six hours effective time.  The sky had below-average 
transparency, due to a combination of haze, thin cirrus clouds and 
perhaps increased airglow.  A few very faint auroras could be seen low 
over the North.

The meteor rates overall were quite enjoyable, even after the thick 
crescent Moon came up.  The logged 116 meteors that night is so far my 
busiest night of 2003. The Orionids actually seemed slightly below 
expectations, and very much on the faint side.  Maximum Orionid hourly 
rates reached 10.  The Moon must have taken a toll on the faintest 
meteors despite my efforts to sheild the glare.  Most of the Orionids 
seen were in the 3-4th mag range and none got brighter than mag 0.  
Somewhat surprising for me was to see as many as 17 members of the 
antihelion source (Taurids).  All the antihelions were nice slow moving 
paths, and sometimes quite colorful!  I also detected weak (1/hr or 
less) activity from the Delta Aurigids.  The random and apex sporadics 
(later on) rates were quite steady.

The highlights of the night inlcluded an awesome mag -4 sporadic 
fireball at 5:09:20UT.  It exploded with a sharp terminal flash on a 
swift path low in the western sky near the star Enif.  Other memorable 
events included:
- The 20 degrees long mag 0 Orionid at 4:31UT.
- The blue colored mag 0 Delta Aurigid at 7:08UT.
- A persistent 30 degrees long slow moving 1st mag sporadic at 7:31UT. 
Blue colored and "nebulous" (fragmenting?) fade out. Had a lovely 10-12 
degrees wake following behind. Nice!
- The 9:10UT 1st mag Taurid. Blue, with 20 degrees long and flaring 
twice.
- At 9:26UT, a bright Iridium Flare (mag -5) was seen unexpectedly in 
the south just as a faint Orionid flashed by.

I noted in my recorder four or five sporadics that all seemed to come 
behind me from the north, with long and fairly fast velocities 
(including the above mentioned fireball).  Unfortunately, I didn't pay 
attention to plotting them.

By the dawn, I realized I was all covered in a thick frost so I was 
glad I took the big sleeping bag out.  Sure felt good to get a healthy 
dose of meteors!  Full report follows...

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 19/20 2003
BEGIN: 0333 UT (2333 EDT)  END: 0950 UT (0550 EDT)
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ORI (Orionids)________________________________ 0616 +16		ANT 
(Taurids)_________________________________ 0224 +15
		DAU (Delta Aurigids)__________________________ 0652 +50
		EGE (Epsilon Geminids)________________________ 0708 +27
		NPX (sporadics from the north apex)____________0744 +36
		SPX (sporadics from the south apex)____________0744 +06
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)__FIELD___Teff__LM_____ORI_ANT_DAU_EGE_NPX_SPX_SPO

0333-0435__0326+28__1.03__6.24____5___2___1___0___0___0___8
0450-0552__0404+22__1.00__6.25____6___5___1___0___0___0___12
0552-0652__0439+15__0.99__6.21____9___5___0___0___3___0___5
0652-0801__0527+15__1.15__6.19___10___1___1___0___2___0___10
0816-0917__0527+15__1.00__6.17____6___4___0___0___2___2___6
0917-0950__0516+11__0.55__6.12____4___0___0___0___1___0___5

TOTALS:_____________5.72_________40___17__3___0___8___2___46

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). The fourth column (F) is a value for obstructions in the field of 
view such as clouds (1.00 = 100% clear skies). The next 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
____-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE

SPO__1___0___0___0___1___2___3__12__29___8____+3.50
ORI__0___0___0___0___2___0___5__12__13___8____+3.45
ANT__0___0___0___0___1___3___3___3___5___2____+2.82
DAU__0___0___0___0___1___0___1___0___1___0____+2.00

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 (FOV): none
------------------------

Dead time: 4 min (breaks).

Breaks (UT): 4:15 (30sec), 4:35-50, 5:01-02, 5:40-41, 6:19 (30sec), 
8:01-16, 8:23-24
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