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(meteorobs) Observation October 13/14 2002
Here's my meteor observations for the morning of October 14. I
watched at the Casselman site for the last 3 hours before dawn. This
time, the sky transparency was very crisp with limiting magnitude
around 6.4. I also had the company of other observers who had their
telescopes setup to catch Orion and other morning winter sky objects.
I especially enjoyed viewing the Andromeda galaxy through a C14 that
was setup nearby. The only factor during this session was a strong
wind, and temperature reaching the freezing mark. My observing
"coffin" (acting as a wind shelter) and a warm sleeping bag came in
quite handy. Those of you who wonder what my portable meteor coffin
looks like can see a pic on my Leonids 2000 page...
http://www.oaog.ca/Meteors/PhotosMeteors/Leonids00/Leo00.htm
I managed to record 42 meteors. Most of this activity consisted of
random sporadics, but low activity was present from all the other
radiants. I was facing the south-east sky for the entire session.
Although no fireballs were seen, the activity was interesting. At
5:56UT, a pair of faint meteors (a sporadic and a Taurid) appeared
only one second apart. The brightest meteor appeared only a few
minutes before the end of the night, and was a swift 0 magnitude
Delta Aurigid.
Another sighting worth mentioning was the very strong zodiacal light
in the east, shortly before the end of astronomical night. The
diffuse cone of zodiacal light extended a good 60 degrees, and its
brightness was comparable to the winter Milky Way.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: October 13/14 2002
BEGIN: 0545 UT (0145 EDT) END: 0935 UT (0535 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 - Plotting method
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________________radiant position
ANT (antihelion source - N. & S. Taurids)______0220 +13
ORI (Orionids)_________________________________0600 +15
EGE (Epsilon Geminids)_________________________0628 +27
DAU (Delta Aurigids)___________________________0632 +50
napx (sporadics from the north apex)___________0720 +37
sapx (sporadics from the south apex)___________0720 +07
SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT)__FIELD____Teff__LM____SPO_ANT_ORI_EGE_DAU_napx_sapx
0545-0649___0428+16__1.00__6.38__9___2___1___1___0____2____0
0649-0757___0550+14__1.00__6.38__6___0___3___1___1____2____3
0757-0935___0654+13__1.18__6.43__2___1___1___1___1____4____1
TOTALS:______________3.18________17__3___5___3___2____8____4 = 42
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: 0(0) +1(0) +2(5) +3(9) +4(11) +5(4) AVE: +3.48
ORI: 0(0) +1(1) +2(0) +3(1) +4(03) +5(0) AVE: +3.20
EGE: 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(2) +4(01) +5(0) AVE: +3.33
ANT: 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(2) +4(01) +5(0) AVE: +3.33
DAU: 0(1) +1(0) +2(0) +3(1) +4(00) +5(0) AVE: +1.50
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:
32 minutes used for breaks.
7 minutes used for plots.
TOTAL DEAD TIME: 39 minutes.
Breaks (UT): 6:44-6:45, 6:57-7:01, 7:25-7:26, 8:08-8:34
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