I had much better luck on this night at Bootland Farm, a dark site located south-west of Arnprior. The post-midnight sky was completely clear with above average transparency, and it looked fantastic! The Milky Way was thick and the Summer Triangle was full of faint stars. In fact, I was impressed at the sky quality even just prior to the waxing gibbous moon setting at 1:41am EDT. Ground fog was a concern but it was never too thick to cause any issues, however it was very dewy. Temperature was just cool enough to prevent any mosquitoes from being a pest.
In three hours until morning dawn, I saw 76 meteors (37 South delta Aquariids, 9 Perseids, 5 49-Andromedids, 4 alpha Capricornids, 4 July Pegasids, 2 Anthelions, 2 eta Eridanids, 2 psi Cassiopeiids and 11 sporadics). The SDA’s dominated all the other activity with my best rates from them seen during the first and final hours.
The highlight of the night was a 60 degrees long eta Eridanid earthgrazer! It only reached +4 but it was still a neat sight!
Also notable during this session was the high number of artificial satellites, including some very fast moving (low orbit) satellites during morning twilight.
All in all, a very enjoyable night with an average of a meteor every two of three minutes!
Observation July 29/30 2020, 05:30-08:34 UT (01:30-04:34 EDT)
Location: Bootland Farm (Stewartville), Ontario, Canada
(45°23’N 76°29’W)
Observed showers:
July gamma Draconids (GDR) – 18:37 (279) +50
alpha Capricornids (CAP) – 20:07 (302) -10
Anthelion (ANT) – 21:04 (316) -17
North delta Aquariids (NDA) – 22:00 (330) -05
South delta Aquariids (SDA) – 22:26 (337) -18
July Pegasids (JPE) – 00:04 (001) +15
Perseids (PER) – 01:29 (022) +53
eta Eridanids (ERI) – 02:01 (030) -17
49 Andromedids (FAN) – 02:07 (032) +50
phi Piscids (PPS) – 02:33 (038) +33
psi Cassiopeiids (PCA) – 02:54 (043) +75
July chi Arietids (JXA) – 03:12 (048) +13
05:30-06:30 UT (01:30-02:30 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.44; facing SSE50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: seventeen: +1(2); +2(3); +3(4); +4(4); +5(4)
CAP: two: +4; +5
PER: two: +5(2)
JPE: one: +3
ERI: one: +4
FAN: one: +3
PCA: one: 0
Sporadics: three: +3; +4(2)
Total meteors: Twenty-eight
06:30-07:30 UT (02:30-03:30 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.54; facing SSE50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: six: +3; +4(2); +5(3)
PER: five: +1; +2(2); +3; +4
CAP: two: +3(2)
FAN: two: +5(2)
JPE: two: +2(2)
ANT: one: +5
Sporadics: seven: +2; +4(3); +5(3)
Total meteors: Twenty-five
07:34-08:34 UT (03:34-04:34 EDT); clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.37; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: fourteen: +2(2); +3(6); +4(3); +5(3)
PER: two: +2; +4
FAN: two: +4; +5
ANT: one: +4
JPE: one: +4
ERI: one: +5
PCA: one: +5
Sporadics: one: +1
Total meteors: Twenty-three
Clear skies,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario