(meteorobs) Geminids December 13/14 from Oregon

[Wesley Stone]

The evening of December 13 was mostly overcast.  There were a couple of very brief sucker holes, but I wasn't able to observe more than a couple of meteors.  I set alarms for 1:30 and 2:30am, but quick looks revealed no breaks in the clouds.  

I didn't set one for 3:30am, but I woke up at 3:29 and looked out the window to a partially clear sky.  This looked like the real thing, so after knocking the sleep from my brain I set up for observing in record time.  As soon as I got in position, I saw the brightest meteor of the morning, a blue -5 Geminid fireball.  Several fainter Geminids and a sporadic followed.  Sky conditions were variable; I had to take a couple of breaks due to my field of view being greatly obstructed.  I tried to be very conservative in applying obstruction just to thick clouds in my usable field of view.  In the clear areas, LM was 6.5-6.8.  At one point, a soft rain started falling, but I kept observing as my field was only 20% obstructed!  (11 minutes later, I had to suspend the watch for good due to total overcast.)  Geminids were plentiful considering the conditions, and pleasingly if not overwhelmingly bright.  Sporadic activity was very high, although it didn't seem that way during the watch (perhaps because of these meteors' faintness).  

While the Geminid weather was mostly frustrating (again...), at least it wasn't a total loss.

Observer: Wesley Stone (STOWE) 
Location: Chiloquin, OR (42d 35m N, 121d 52m W) 
Method: Counting: Watch/Tape recorder 
Date: 2004 December 13/14 

Interval UT    Teff    F    LM   GEM   MON   Spo 
1144-1252      1.02   1.34  6.7   41    2     21 

(Breaks were taken from 1156-1201 (5 min.) and 1217-1218 (1 min.) due to excessive cloudiness.  A total of 2 minutes was also deducted as dead time for time recording purposes.)

Magnitude Distribution: 

     -5  -4  -3  -2  -1   0   1   2   3   4   5   Total (Mean)
GEM   1   -   1   3   1   3   5  11   7   6   3     41   (1.8)
MON   -   -   -   -   -   -   1   -   1   -   -      2   (2.0)  
Spo   -   -   -   -   -   1   -   7   7   3   3     21   (3.0)


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