(meteorobs) Observation July 25/26 2007 (Moose Creek)

[Pierre Martin]

For the morning of July 26, I drove to Moose Creek to catch the  
moonless window before dawn.  It was a warm night with temp reaching  
a low of 20C.  I left the sleeping bag inside the car :)   
Unfortunately, the session was plagued by heavy haze and smog which  
limited the LM to 5.5 at best (around the zenith).  The lower areas  
of the sky looked so mucky that I could barely see the stars of  
Capricornus!

Despite the poor skies, I recorded 25 meteors in just two hours!  The  
Capricornids, Delta Aquarids and Perseids were well represented.  The  
CAPs seen were quite bright (ranging between mag 0 and +1) - I just  
love how these slow moving meteors often allow enough time for a good  
look at them!

The nicest meteor was a 1st mag yellow Delta Aquarid at 3:05am EDT.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 25/26 2007
BEGIN: 0520 UT (0120 EDT) END: 0735 UT (0335 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 200 ft
City & Province: Moose Creek, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)__________________________20:28 -10
ANT (Antihelions)_________________________________21:12 -14
SDA (Delta Aquarids)______________________________22:36 -16
PER (Perseids)____________________________________01:52 +54
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)___________________________22:48 -29
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_CAP_ANT_SDA_PER_PAU

0520-0620___2040+11___1.00___1.00___5.47___7___3___1___2___1___0
0620-0735___2208+12___1.02___1.00___5.53___4___1___1___2___3___0

TOTALS:_______________2.02_________________11__4___2___4___4___0 = 25

Note: 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 not spent  
looking at the sky). The column (LM) is the average naked eye  
limiting magnitude, determined by triangle star counts. All following  
columns indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
_______0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO____0___1___1___4___4___1_____+3.27
CAP____2___2___0___0___0___0_____+0.50
SDA____0___1___0___2___1___0_____+2.75
PER____0___0___0___1___3___0_____+3.75
ANT____0___0___0___1___0___1_____+4.00

Note: 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) (UT): None

------------------------

Dead time: 14 min (time taken for breaks)

Breaks (UT): 6:25-34, 7:16-21