Ivan Zuger and I enjoyed a very relaxing camping trip at Bon Echo Provincial Park (about 200 km west of Ottawa), from late July to early August.  We had three beautiful clear nights, and I took advantage of the dark remote area to kick off my summer meteor observing campaign.  The late July period is always one of my favourites time of the year for meteor activity.  Several minor showers are active, the Southern Delta Aquariids peak over the span of a few nights and the Perseids start to become quite noticeable.  For the first clear night, Ivan and I decided to try out the Irvine Lake airstrip (also known as Nirvana within the local amateur astronomy community), a short few minutes drive north of the park.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to this site, and it looked pretty much the same as always… a large, quiet, wide open area with access to the entire sky!  The short hill leading up to the airstrip is in need of repairs and must be taken carefully, to avoid scrapping the bottom of the car.  Once up, it is very level ground with ample room for many setups.  On this night, I had my 12.5” dob to observe deep sky objects in the evening, and then I switched to meteor observing at midnight.  The transparency was good (3/5) with a great Milky Way, although a very thin smoke layer affected the sky slightly.  I also enjoyed sharp views of Saturn through Ivan’s refractor.  Then, a very slow grazing meteor came out of the Bootes area, and persisted for several seconds.  For the rest of the night, I observed from the comfort of my reclining lawn chair.

In 3.5 hours towards dawn, I saw 93 meteors (27 Southern delta Aquariids, 13 Perseids, 11 alpha Capricornids, 5 Northern delta Aquariids, 4 gamma Draconids, 3 49-Andromedids, 1 Anthelion, 1 phi Piscid and 28 sporadics).

There was several nice meteors, but the highlight was at 2:57am with the -3 yellow-blue alpha Capricornid.  It flared twice in Cetus on a long path and left a 3 seconds persistent train.

July 28/29 2019, 04:00-08:10 UT (00:00-04:10 EDT)
Location: Irvine Lake Airstrip, Denbigh, Ontario, Canada
(Long: -77 deg 15’ 46″ West; Lat: 45 deg 1’ 47″ North)

Observed showers:
gamma Draconids (GDR) – 18:40 (280) +50
alpha Capricornids (CAP) – 20:10 (303) -10
Anthelion (ANT) – 21:08 (317) -16
Northern delta Aquariids (NDA) – 22:07 (332) -04
Southern Delta Aquariids (SDA) – 22:34 (339) -17
Piscids Austrinids (PAU) – 22:52 (343) -25
Perseids (PER) – 01:40 (025) +54
eta Eridanids (ERI) – 02:04 (032) -17
49 Andromedids (FAN) – 02:11 (033) +51
phi Piscids (PPS) – 02:37 (039) +34
psi Cassiopeiids (PCA) – 03:00 (045) +75

04:00-05:00 UT (00:00-01:00 EDT); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.75; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: five: +1; +2; +3(2); +5
PER: five: 0; +2; +3(2); +5
CAP: four: 0; +3(2); +4
GDR: two: +2; +4
NDA: one: +3
FAN: one: +3
Sporadics: five: +1; +3; +4; +6(2)
Total meteors: Twenty-three

05:26-06:26 UT (01:26-02:26 EDT); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.75; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
SDA: eight: +1; +2; +3(3); +4; +5; +6
PER: two: 0; +3
CAP: two: +1; +5
GDR: one: +1
NDA: one: +5
PPS: one: 0
Sporadics: eight: +2; +3(2); +4(3); +5; +6
Total meteors: Twenty-three

06:26-07:30 UT (02:26-03:30 EDT); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.75; facing S50 deg; teff 1.06 hr
SDA: twelve: +1; +2(4); +3(2); +4(4); +5
PER: five: +2; +3; +4(2); +5
CAP: five: -3; +2; +4(2); +5
NDA: two: +2; +4
GDR: one: +4
ANT: one: +2
FAN: one: +4
Sporadics: nine: 0; +2; +3; +4(2); +5(3); +6
Total meteors: Thirty-six

07:40-08:10 UT (03:40-04:10 EDT); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.60; facing S50 deg; teff 0.50 hr
SDA: two: +2; +4
PER: one: +2
NDA: one: +2
FAN: one: +2
Sporadics: six: +1(2); +4; +5(3)
Total meteors: Eleven