On the following night, I decided to go to the Moose Creek site (60km east of Ottawa) for a short one hour pre-dawn session to see what the Perseids were up to just one day before the peak. It was a bit of a race against an approaching cloud bank in the west, but the sky was very clear overhead. I rushed to setup but I wasn’t sure how long the clear sky would last. It was a comfortably mild night with a light breeze and no humidity. The sky was extremely impressive for this location (LM=6.5) thanks to the clouds keeping the Ottawa light pollution glow from spilling up. I faced the south-east to observe as long as I could away from the approaching clouds.
In one hour, I saw 35 meteors (27 Perseids, 2 Southern Delta Aquariids, 2 eta Eridanids, 1 Northern delta Aquariid, 1 Piscids Austrinid and 2 sporadics). Some long, bright Perseids were seen but no fireballs.
At 3:45am EDT, the clouds started affecting my field of view, and at 4:10am, it was enough that I called it a night. It was a short and sweet session!
Observation August 11/12 2019, 07:08-08:10 UT (03:08-04:10 EDT)
Location: Moose Creek, Ontario, Canada
(45°15’13″N 75°02’57″W)
Observed showers:
kappa Cygnids (KCG) – 18:56 (284) +49
alpha Capricornids (CAP) – 21:05 (316) -07
Anthelion (ANT) – 22:04 (331) -12
Northern delta Aquariids (NDA) – 22:58 (344) +01
Southern Delta Aquariids (SDA) – 23:27 (352) -12
Piscids Austrinids (PAU) – 23:41 (355) -19
Perseids (PER) – 03:01 (045) +57
eta Eridanids (ERI) – 02:56 (044) -12
07:08-08:10 UT (03:08-04:10 EDT); increasing clouds during final 20 min; 4/5 trans; F 1.09; LM 6.53; facing SE50 deg; teff 1.03 hr
PER: twenty-seven: 0(2); +1; +2(8) +3(5); +4(6); +5(5)
SDA: two: -1; +5
ERI: two: +2; +4
NDA: one: +5
PAU: one: +3
Sporadics: two: +3; +5
Total meteors: Thirty-five
Clear skies,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
