On the morning of August 16, I went to the Bootland Farm site (about 70km west of Ottawa) for a three hour meteor session. The sky was clear with average quality transparency (about 2.5/5). It was slightly hazy, possibly from some forest fire smoke in the atmosphere. It was a cool 12C, very dewy, but a decent night to be out. This was my final outing during the Perseids activity period.
Between 1:02am and 4:11am local time, I saw 68 meteors (30 Perseids, 9 kappa Cygnids, 6 Northern delta Aquariids, 2 anthelions, 2 Southern delta Aquariids and 19 sporadics. The Perseids were back to their normal activity, as they wound down, with hourly rates of 5, 11 and 14. The best meteor was a blue-green -1 Perseid with a three seconds train at 2:28am EDT.
This has been a good year for the Kappa Cygnids. They have been pretty active with a handful of meteors per hour, over several nights, typically with the best rates earlier while the radiant is still very high. I did not see any fireballs from them this year. During August 2007, they produced many large fireballs (aka flashbulb shower) that delighted observers! During other years, very few Kappa Cygnids are seen. Recent analysis appears to support a suggested 7-year periodicity in activity.
August 15/16 2021, 05:02-08:11 UT (01:02-04:11 EDT)
Location: Bootland Farm, Ontario, Canada
(Long: -76 deg 29’ West; Lat: 45 deg 23′ North)
IMO session: https://www.imo.net/members/imo_vmdb/view?session_id=82777
Observed showers:
August xi Draconids (AXD) – 18:24 (276) +55
zeta Draconids (AUD) – 19:06 (287) +59
kappa Cygnids (KCG) – 19:08 (287) +52
Anthelion (ANT) – 22:20 (335) -10
Northern delta Aquariids (NDA) – 23:14 (349) +02
Southern delta Aquariids (SDA) – 23:24 (351) -14
Perseids (PER) – 03:30 (053) +59
eta Eridanids (ERI) – 03:15 (049) -10
05:02-06:02 UT (01:02-02:02 EDT); 2/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.38; facing SSE55 deg; teff 1.00 hr
PER: five: 0; +3; +4(2); +5
KCG: five: +2; +3; +4(3)
NDA: five: +1; +2; +4; +5(2)
ANT: one: +3
Sporadics: six: +3; +5(5)
Total meteors: Twenty-two
06:02-07:02 UT (02:02-03:02 EDT); 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.40; facing SSE55 deg; teff 1.00 hr
PER: eleven: -1; +2(3); +3(2); +4(2); +5(3)
KCG: three: +1; +2(2)
ANT: one: +3
SDA: one: +5
Sporadics: five: +1; +3; +4; +5(2)
Total meteors: Twenty-one
07:02-08:11 UT (03:02-04:11 EDT); 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.40; facing SSE55 deg; teff 1.15 hr
PER: fourteen: 0; +1(2); +2(4); +3(2); +4(3); +5(2)
KCG: one: +1
NDA: one: +4
SDA: one: +5
Sporadics: eight: +2; +3; +4; +5(5)
Total meteors: Twenty-five
Total meteors for this session: 68