(meteorobs) Observation December 13/14 2005

Sun Dec 18 01:09:33 EST 2005

For the peak of the old-faithful of meteor showers (Geminids), I  
decided to brave the cold weather, Full Moon and try for an all-night  
observation at the Boundary road site.  The good transparency  
certainly helped (LM at or slightly better than 5.0), but I needed to  
prepare to be out several hours in temperature dropping to -20C (-4F)  
with a windchill of -25C (-13F) by morning.  This is way colder than  
the average for December.  I arrived at the site at 9pm (local time),  
and by the time I had everything setup, including my coffin, I signed- 
on just after 10pm.  Chris Cloutier and Greg Baggs also joined me for  
a while.  I observed until 6:30am.  In all, I got in close to 7 hours  
TEFF.  A number of breaks were taken to attend my camera, and also to  
move around in order to keep my body warm.

It was a very rewarding night, with 233 meteors!  The Geminids were  
quite active, as lots of meteor activity could still be enjoyed  
despite the Moon.  Geminids rates for each hour: 26, 31, 33, 43, 25,  
22 and 23.  The drop-off of rates seemed quite sharp after that  
fourth hour, but the Geminids compensated for the lower numbers with  
an increase of bright, colorful meteors and some fireballs!  In all,  
it was a decent display even with the Moon.  NO LESS than 18 Geminids  
were in the negative magnitude range, including five fireball-class  
meteors (three -4s and two -3s)!  An additional -4 mag Gem was seen  
at midnight while I was "on break" (not recording meteors).  It flew  
a long path into Ursa Major and along the way, several small  
fragments were coming off this beautiful blue-white meteor!

The moderately bright Geminids (mag 0 and up) once again showed very  
vivid colors ranging from electric blues to pure whites!  Another  
highlight was a near point (head-on) mag 0 Geminid seen at 11:47pm,  
coming straight out of the radiant and having almost no apparent motion!

I was also running a camera (Canon 300D) all night.  Multiple  
exposures were then stacked together to produce this digital  
composition of Geminid meteors, taken on December 13/14 2005.  I was  
even fortunate enough to catch one of the mag -4 fireballs!  Photo  
details: Canon 300D with 35mm f2 lens, 800 ASA.  http://tinyurl.com/ 
8zrqe

By 6:30am, the cold and numb fingers was finally starting to get to  
me, and my car was frozen and it took a while to warm up.  But I was  
pleased I decided to give the moonlit Gems a chance!  The effort and  
lost sleep was worth it, and it was a really fine night!! :0)

I'm looking forward to next year's event, under darker conditions!

Details below...

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

DATE: December 13/14 2005
BEGIN: 0310 UT (2210 EST)  END: 1130 UT (0630 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

0310-0437__0613+72__1.00__5.00____1__26___0___0___0___0
0437-0554__0915+53__1.00__5.15____4__31___0___0___0___1
0554-0709__1031+55__1.00__5.30____2__33___1___2___0___0
0709-0810__1224+64__1.01__5.15____3__43___0___1___2___1
0810-0930__0845+18__1.01__5.15____0__25___2___2___0___0
0930-1031__0931+17__0.99__5.23____5__22___0___0___0___1
1031-1130__1049+17__0.95__5.08____2__23___0___0___0___0

TOTALS:_____________1.96_________17__203__3___5___2___3 = 233

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

SPO____0___1___0___0___1___0___3___6___5___1_____+2.71
GEM____3___2___4___9__19__29__48__47__39___3_____+1.98
MON____0___0___0___0___0___1___1___3___0___0_____+2.40
COM____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___2___0_____+3.33
XOR____0___0___0___0___0___1___2___0___0___0_____+1.66
HYD____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___0_____+3.00

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: 82.5 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 3:25-28, 4:03-27, 4:39(30sec), 4:51-5:06, 5:21(30sec),  
5:44-45, 6:18-33, 7:55(30sec), 8:19-35, 8:47-50, 9:12(30sec), 9:56 
(30sec), 10:11-12, 10:39-41

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