(meteorobs) Ursid obs. Dec. 21/22 from Oregon

[Wesley Stone]

Prior to this morning, I had seen a grand total of one Ursid in my life, during a weather-aborted 2001 session. I'll be honest.  Based on recent accounts of this shower, I expected two or three Ursids per hour.  And that's if the skies were clear.  I timed the start of my watch for moonset, but of course there was a cloud bank moving through then.  So, I waited, and it cleared off.  I immediately saw two Ursids in rapid succession, followed a couple of minutes later by an absolutely gorgeous Ursid fireball (-4, red, speed 2/5, 20-second train).  OK, that was the highlight of the watch, but the Ursids did put in a really decent showing.  I saw 22 Ursids in 1.38 hours of Teff.  I had to take a break an hour in as the sky got really scuzzy, but there was some fitful clearing around the beginning of morning twilight that allowed me to confirm ongoing Ursid activity.

Coma Berenicids only produced two meteors.  I can't believe that I forgot about Bob's post regarding December Leonids.  At least three candidates that aligned too far west to be COMs appeared in the first hour.  But, like I say, I didn't distinguish them on the tape.  I only remembered the "December Leonid" proposed radiant during the cloud break, and no candidates appeared thereafter. Hopefully Bob or someone else was plotting this morning. 

Observer: Wesley Stone (STOWE) 
Location: Chiloquin, OR (42d 35m N, 121d 52m W) 
Method: Counting: Watch/Tape recorder 
Date: 2004 December 21/22 

Interval UT  Teff    F      LM    URS   COM   Spo* 
1209-1224    0.25   1.00   6.80    5     1     4
1224-1239    0.25   1.00   6.56    4     0     7
1239-1254    0.25   1.00   6.80    4     0     4 
1254-1309    0.25   1.00   6.72    4     0     5
BREAK 1309-1346
1346-1409    0.38   1.17   6.34    5     1     5
-------------
TOTALS       1.38   1.05   6.61   22     2    25

*Spo includes 1 Antihelion meteor, magnitude +2 at 1242 UT.

Magnitude Distributions

Total
    -4   -3   -2   -1   0   +1   +2   +3   +4   +5   Total (Mean)
URS  1    -    1    1   -    1    5    6    5    2     22   (2.4)
COM  -    -    -    -   -    -    -    2    -    -      3   (3.0)
Spo  -    -    -    -   1    2    5   10    3    4     25   (3.0)

By Interval

1209-1224  5 URS –4, +2, +3, +4(2)
           1 COM +3
           4 Spo  0, +3(2), +5

1224-1239  4 URS –2, +2, +3, +4
           7 Spo +2(2), +3(3), +4, +5

1239-1254  4 URS +1, +2, +3, +4
           4 Spo +2(2), +4, +5

1254-1309  4 URS –1, +3(2), +5
           5 Spo +1, +2, +3, +4, +5

1346-1409  5 URS +2(2), +3, +4, +5
           1 COM +3
           5 Spo +1, +3(4)

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