(meteorobs) Observation December 12/13 2005

Pierre Martin dob14.5 at sympatico.ca
Sun Dec 18 01:09:27 EST 2005


Hello all,

I had great luck for this year's Geminids peak nights - blessed with  
two very transparent (but cold!) nights.

On Tuesday morning December 13, I went out to the Boundary road site  
(east of Ottawa) to catch the activity before dawn, with the gibbous  
Moon setting.  I observed for over an hour up until the morning  
twilight.  The temperature was frigid at -20C (-4F) but the calm air  
gave the impression it wasn't nearly that cold.  As the Moon was  
setting, the LM approached 6.0 under the crystal clear skies.

The meteor activity was surprisingly good for the night before the  
peak.  I counted 65 meteors, with 51 of them being Geminids!  Some  
beautiful meteors were seen with vivid colors, but no fireballs.  The  
dominant colors noticed in the Geminids was blue and white.

I was also running a camera and managed to catch a nice meteor.   
Details below...

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: December 12/13 2005
BEGIN: 0952 UT (0452 EST)  END: 1115 UT (0615 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 300 ft
City & Province: Boundary road, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting & cord align
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		XOR - ANT (Chi Orionids)_________________06:16 +23
		MON (Monocerotids)_______________________06:44 +08
		GEM (Geminids)___________________________07:16 +33
		HYD (Sigma Hydrids)______________________08:24 +02
		COM (Coma Berenicids)____________________11:20 +27
		SPO (sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_GEM_XOR_MON_HYD_COM

0952-1115__0909+22__1.35__5.85____8___51__1___2___2___1  =  65

The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods broken down  
as close as possible to one hour of true observing, in Universal  
Time. The second column (Field) is the area in in the sky where I  
centered my field of view. The third column (TEFF) represents  
effective observing time (corrected for breaks or any time I did not  
spent looking at the sky).  The next column (LM) is the average naked  
eye limiting magnitude, determined by triangle star counts. All  
following columns indicate the number of meteors for each shower  
observed.
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
______-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE

SPO____0___1___0___0___2___2___2___1_____+2.75
GEM____1___1___5___4__12__13__12___3_____+2.49
MON____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___1_____+4.00
HYD____0___0___0___0___1___0___1___0_____+3.00
XOR____0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0_____+1.00
COM____0___1___0___0___0___0___0___0_____-1.00

Note: Magnitude scale is to determine the brightness of sky objects.  
Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with the  
planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius, magnitude  
+2 to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6 to +7 are  
the faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark  
conditions. A meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a  
fireball. The above table contains the magnitudes from all observed  
meteors, and the average (last column) for showers.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV): None

F = 1.00

------------------------

Dead time: 2 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 10:39-10:41

-------------------------





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