(meteorobs) Ursid activity observed, Dec 22/23

Jure Atanackov (via Lew Gramer) jureatanackov at email.si
Wed Dec 27 07:01:18 EST 2006


>Date: Sunday 24 December 2006 16:03

Hello!

I observed the skies for two hours around the predicted Ursid peak from my 
Bortle class 5 backyard to check for any enhanced activity. The sky was quite 
transparent with a very strong northeasterly wind gusting up to 100 km/h. A 
spectacularly strong gust nearly knocked me over in my observing chair! My LM 
hovered around 6.0, low compared to the usual ~6.5 during similar conditions 
(strong northeasterly wind, dry air). Setting up my equipment, I saw a -1. 
magnitude Ursid at 18:01 UT. Encouraged by this, I started my watch at 19:10.  
It didn't take much to see several more bright Ursids. The first hour ended 
with 8 Ursids seen. This rate persisted during the second hour, with 9 Ursids 
seen, including a spectacular -3. magnitude 50-degrees long yellow-orange 
meteor with three blue bursts and a 4-second persistent train! Looking at 
Michel's report, our rates are very similar and it appears that the activity 
was lower before and after my watch. I ended my observation at 20:15 UT, 
because of the brutal conditions.

OBSERVING SUMMARY:

Observer: Jure Atanackov (ATAJU)
Date: December 22/23, 2006
Location: Plavje, Slovenia
Lat: 45.572 N  Long: 13.779 E  Elev: 106 m
Start: 18:10UT  End: 20:15UT

Period UT     F    teff  LM    URS  ANT  Spor
18:10-19:11  1.05  1.00  6.02   8    0     6
19:11-20:15  1.05  1.03  6.04   9    0     6

Magnitude distribution:
URS:   -3(1) -1(1)  0(2) +1(1) +2(4) +3(5) +4(2)
Spor:   0(1) +1(2) +2(2) +3(5) +4(2)

Clear skies!
Jure A.

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