The last few days of July period has long been one of my favourite times to observe meteors!  Activity kicks into high gear at this point, with several active southern radiants including the Aquariids, early Perseids and upswing in sporadic rates too!  The Moon will usually either favour the Aquariids in late July or the more popular Perseids in August.  For 2016, the situation was actually pretty good for both.  For the Aquariids, a waning crescent Moon rose shortly before dawn, and for the Perseids, the Moon set is shortly after midnight.  So this makes it possible to enjoy a bit of each shower’s best near their maximum.

I ventured out to Bootland Farm, still one of my favourite sites (nice balance of darkness, seclusion and proximity from the city).  I signed on just before midnight and I observed for over 4 hours until morning twilight.  It was a pristine night with above-average transparency and stars up to mag 6.6 near the zenith!  The Milky Way was quite impressive too for this location.  At the start of the session, I saw two brilliant satellite flares of mag -4 or so one after the other high in the south!

I saw a total 90 meteors, lots going on up there!  Not surprisingly, the South Delta Aquariids was the most active shower with 25 seen, followed by the Perseids with 15.  The anthelions and Beta Perseids were also active, each producing 6 meteors.  Other showers weakly active included the Capricornids, July Pegasids and Gamma Draconids.

The best meteor was the mag -4 CAP in Delphinus at 3:53am. It moved slowly on a short path until it ended with a terminal flash!

The rising crescent Moon caused only a small dip in the limiting magnitude towards the end of the night.

July 29/30 2016, 03:50-08:20 UT (23:50-04:20 EDT)
Location: Bootland Farm (Stewartville), Ontario, Canada
(Long: -76 deg 29′; Lat: 45 deg 23′)

Observed showers:
July gamma Draconids (GDR) – 18:42 (281) +51
Alpha Capricornids (CAP) –  20:28 (307) -09
Anthelion (ANT) –  21:20 (320) -14
South Delta Aquariids (SDA) -22:52 (343) -16
Piscis Austrinids (PAU) – 23:04 (346) -30
July Pegasids (JPE) -00:20 (005) +16
Perseids (PER) – 02:04 (031) +55
Eta Eridanids (ERI) – 02:24 (036) -14
beta Perseids (BPE) – 02:35 (039) +39

03:50-04:50 UT (23:50-00:50 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.60; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
ANT: four: +3; +4; +5(2)
SDA: three: -2; +2; +4
PER: three: +2(3)
GDR: one: +3
BPE: one: +5
Sporadics: five: +1; +3; +4(2); +5
Total meteors: Seventeen

04:50-05:50 UT (00:50-01:50 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.60; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: seven: 0; +1; +2; +3; +4; +5(2)
PER: five: +1; +2; +3(2); +4
BPE: two: -1; +3
CAP: one: +2
ANT: one: +5
JPE: one: +4
Sporadics: seven: +2; +3; +4(2); +5(3)
Total meteors: Twenty-four

05:50-07:00 UT (01:50-03:00 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.58; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: ten: 0; +2(2); +3(5); +4; +5
PER: four: +2(2); +3; +5
CAP: one: +4
JPE: one: 0
BPE: one: +4
Sporadics: eight: +1; +2; +3(3); +4(2); +5
Total meteors: Twenty-five

07:00-08:00 UT (03:00-04:00 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.53; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: five: +2(2); +3(2); +5
PER: two: 0; +1
BPE: two: +2; +4
CAP: one: -4
ANT: one: +3
JPE: one: +4
Sporadics: ten: +2(5); +3(2); +4; +5(2)
Total meteors: Twenty-two

08:00-08:20 UT (04:00-04:20 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans (morning twilight); F 1.00; LM 6.38; facing S60 deg; teff 0.33 hr
PER: one: +1
Sporadics: one: +2
Total meteors: Two

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario