(meteorobs) URSIDS 12/22/04 UT from southern Maryland

[Richard Taibi]

Hi to all,

Variable cloudiness all night, 12/21-22, made the probability of seeing any 
meteors look very poor.  Unexpectedly, the sky went all clear at 430 am EST 
(930 UT 12/22).  I was able to get to my light polluted McKendree site at 
10:22 UT for a half-hour observation until 10:52 UT.  At that point the dawn 
was approaching and even more of problem were two Anne Arundel County 
(Maryland) Police officers who came to investigate a citizen's report of 
suspicious activity.  Yes, it was me.  No, I wasn't arrested, but one cop 
thought it was hilarious that a man would get out of a warm bed to lie in a 
sleeping bag at 0 degrees Celsius and watch stars FOR NO PAYMENT!!  
Someone's tax dollars at work!

I estimate only getting 20 decent, uninterrupted minutes of observation out 
of 30.  But, in that 20 minutes, I saw a -2 and two, +2 Ursids!  With the 
advantage of this late posting and seeing Wes Stone's and Robin Gray's 
western US results, I think that the Ursids had a good showing this year.  
In past mediocre years, I only see 1-3 Ursids in one or two hours.  This is 
another demonstration that the shower deserves watching yearly at least 
until perihelion passage of Comet Tuttle in 2008.

My details:

Observer: TAIRI

Date: December 22, 2004 UT  Time: 10:22-10:52 UT  Lm=5.2  F=1.25  Teff=0.33  
Field ctr=UMa

Site: McKendree, MD, USA

URS: -2, +2, +2

Best wishes,  Rich