(meteorobs) Geminid obs, Sharon Massachusetts, 14 Dec 2004
Wendy Ison
laxkitty16 at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 14 13:49:16 EST 2004
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Thanks,
Wendy Ison
>From: Richard Kramer <kramer at sria.com>
>Reply-To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
>To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
>Subject: (meteorobs) Geminid obs, Sharon Massachusetts, 14 Dec 2004
>Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:29:15 -0500
>
>Finally !
>
>After an interminable string of clouds and mirk, a chance to log a few
>Geminids. The sky was discouraging at 11PM local time with a thick island
>of stationary cumulus comfortably settled overhead. The horizon showed a
>band of clear sky in every direction, but my stubborn local cumulus were
>refusing to budge. Not very hopeful, at 1AM I went out to take a final look
>at the clouds and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were gone.
>Unfortunately, they were replaced by a general haze which took a big bite
>out of the LM.
>
>Fortunately, bright GEMs were plentiful, almost all of them glowing an
>unearthly, emerald green and most of them leaving brief, luminous trains. A
>couple of the brightest metoers left trains which lasted about 1 second
>before they faded into the murky urban light pollution. I'm sure I was only
>seeing the brightest fraction of what was likely a very active shower.
>
>One highlight of the session was the fastest meteor, by far, that I've ever
>seen. It was a dim sporadic which had to be travelling more than 100 km/sec
>!!! It was moving so fast that a velocity estimate is extremely difficult.
>It appeared and disappeared so fast that it gave more the impression of an
>arrow straight lightning flash than a meteor. It spanned some 40 degrees
>stretching from north to south, almost parallel to, and just west of, the
>meridian at 07:01 UTC. Dimmer than mag 3, it was the faintest meteor of the
>evening, but spectacular for its velocity.
>
>Activity seemed to be "clumpy." There were a number of near simultaneous
>meteors, sometimes diverging from the radiant in different directions, and
>sometimes seeming to be pairs of particles travelling together and making
>nearly parallel traces when they hit our atmosphere. Once such pair could
>have been mistaken for a skipping entry, a bright short trace starting
>close to the radiant, followed by a longer trace, exactly colinear with the
>first, beginning farther from the radiant and running considerably longer.
>These were definitely two separate particles because the second trace began
>slightly before the first trace was finished. They must have certainly been
>two very similar particles which had been making their journey around the
>sun in close formation for all those years.
>
>After breaking camp for the short walk home, I managed to irritate a
>neighborhood screech owl with my imperfect attempts at a call. He raged
>back at me from the middle of a nearby wetland as the emerald GEMs
>continued to streak overhead during my amble home. It was a delightful way
>to conclude the evening.
>
>Richard
>
>---------
>
>Richard Kramer Sharon MA USA
>71 deg 10.87 min W 42 deg 6.53 min N Elev 220 ft
>
>2004
>EST 01:33 14 Dec to 02:33 14 Dec
>UTC 06:33 14 Dec to 07:33 14 Dec
>
>Showers observed GEM
>
>14 Dec
>UTC Teff LM GEM SPO Total
>06:33 - 06:50 .27 4 4 2 6
>06:50 - 07:01 .17 4 6 0 6
>07:01 - 07:13 .20 4 0 2 2
>07:13 - 07:22 .15 4 7 0 7
>07:22 - 07:29 .11 4 5 0 5
>07:29 - 07:33 .07 4 0 0 0
>TOTAL .97 - 22 4 26
>
>Magnitude Distributions
>
> -2 -1 0 1 2 3 TOTAL
>GEM 1 1 5 5 5 5 22
>SPO 0 0 0 0 2 2 4
>
>Notes:
>1. Facing south center of field was between Orion and Gemini
>2. Time bins are irregular due to problems with my primary clock, times are
>accurate
>3. LM shown as 4, but declined to 2, 30 degrees off the zenith because of
>haze and light pollution. Effectively, obscuration was 10% at LM 2, 35% at
>LM 3, and 50% at LM 4.
>4. Temp 27F winds south, steady at 10 km/hr.
>
>---
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