(meteorobs) nice geminid report

[KCStarguy at aol.com]

Very nice report and congrats.   Glad you see so many.
 Due to school teaching that day, I watched after the night maximum (due to 
clouds).I just camped out next to my house shielded by the lights by my   car. 
While I observed only 5 in about an hour, I was pleased eventhough skies were 
at about 5 mag maxium.
The best at 4:08 Central time USA was a gorgeous 0 magnitude Geminid that 
shot from the radiant to the Southeast going 25 degrees. It started   off faint 
then built into a its brightest in 0.75 seconds and then leaving a nice .75 
train. 

Dr. Eric Flescher (kcstarguy at aol.com), Olathe, KS: Member #2572 IMCA 
(International Meteorite Collectors Association) : E.O.A.S. (Earth, Oceans, Atmosphere 
and Space) Blog -<http://eoas-dreric1kansas.blogspot.com/>:State of Kansas 
Solar System Ambassador: Comet Observers Coordinator- Astronomy   League/ 
Astronomical Society of Kansas, KC, MO-Louisburg,KS: 
http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/comet/comet.htm: CometObserversAwardALsubscribe at yahoogroups.com - Dr. 
Eric Flescher (kcstarguy at aol.com), Olathe, KS: State of Kansas Solar System 
Ambassador:Eric's Black Sun Eclipse newsletter
: Subscribe to (send your email to)< blacksuneclipse-subscribe at egroups.com>
:Website- http://members.aol.com/kcstarguy/blacksun/eclipse.htm: Satori 
Astronomy Website- 
http://members.aol.com/kcstarguy/satoriastronomy/satoriastronomy.htm
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:59:48 -0500
> From: Jure Atanackov (via Lew Gramer) <jureatanackov at email.si>
> Subject: (meteorobs) Geminids spectacular from Slovenia, Dec 13/14!!!
> To: Meteorobs <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Message-ID: <200612270659.48295.jureatanackov at email.si>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="utf-8"
> 
> >Date: Sunday 24 December 2006 16:02
> 
> Hello all!
> 
> The Geminids again prepared a spectacular show with many, many meteors! We
> enjoyed typical Geminid weather here: fog and low clouds in the lower areas
> and beautiful, crystal clear skies up in the mountains, with the added bonus
> of near-zero light pollution due to the cloud blanket. I observed with a
> group including Jure Z. from Kisovec, a 1300 m high plateau at the southern
> edge of the Alps. I drove up with Jure and two other observers in early
> evening. We first tried to reach a higher observing location, at about 1500
> meters, but the only access road was completely frozen and the steeper
> sections were very slippery, so we gave up and drove down to Kisovec. Better
> safe than sorry! Kisovec plateau is a nice almost flat area about half a
> kilometer or a bit more across, surrounded by mostly spruce forest. The 
> trees
> and field were covered by a thin layer of frozen snow that had fallen only
> several days before.
> 
> We then set up in the middle of the field, while Jure set up his photo gear
> (Nikon D70 and F65 and Canon EOS 350D mounted on an EQ6 mount). By the time 
> I
> started, the other group had also arrived. Overall, the sky was very nice
> with LM6.8-7.1 and almost no light pollution visible. The Winter Milky Way
> was visible right down to the horizon, while the bright Summer Milky Way in
> Cygnus, with intricate detail and structure, was setting behind the spruce
> forest in the northwest, making a spectacular view. Zodiacal band was
> visible, running from Pisces through Aries and Taurus, merging with the 
> Milky
> way and then on in Gemini and Cancer. Many Messier objects were visible with
> the naked eye, M33 was visible with direct vision and the Pleiades were
> enveloped in a ghostly glow.
> 
> The Geminids were very active right from the start. The first period had a
> rate of 1 per minute, which increased to 2 per minute by 23h local and a
> whopping *sustained* 3 per minute from half past midnight on. In a total of
> 5.93h teff I saw 887 meteors, of those 761 Geminids! I was very surprised by
> the very high rates with the expected peak still 12 hours away! Sometimes
> bunches of Geminids appeared in the same area of sky just seconds apart.
> There were several occasions of several meteors in several seconds. There
> were also no less than 3 instances of *dead on* simultaneous meteors, the
> best being a pair of -1. and 0. magnitude yellow Geminids shooting through
> Taurus and Cancer. There were also several pairs of almost simultaneous
> meteors, appearing within a second of each other, partially overlapping. The
> Geminids were not particularly bright, though. There were relatively few
> negative magnitude meteors and the  majority were 2. to 4. magnitude. The
> best were:
> 
> - a vividly green -4. magnitude Geminid trailing an orange wake, only about 
> 5
> degrees above the southern horizon at 22:12:45 UT
> 
> - a long -3. magnitude yellow Geminid with a 3 second train in Ursa Major at
> 20:41:40 UT
> 
> - a -3. magnitude yellow Geminid in Ursa Minor at 01:39 UT
> 
> There was also constant sporadic activity with 15-20 meteors per hour and 
> low,
> but detectable activity from all minor showers. The top sporadic rate was 23
> per hour, during the hour before moonrise. Among the minor showers, I felt
> the most prominent or easily distinguishable were the Monocerotids, which
> produced a constant rate of 1-2 per hour. The Xi Orionids were about the
> same, with 1-2 per hour.
> 
> The best group appeared in 10 seconds centered on 21:39:00 UT. First, a 
> bright
> yellow-orange -5. magnitude sporadic fireball cut through Ursa Major,
> producing a flash that illuminated the ground and leaving a 3 second train.
> As the train was still visible, a slow sporadic appeared in Taurus, crawling
> towards Cancer on a *long 7 second* flight, shedding reddish sparks all the
> way. Meanwhile, two more Geminids of 2. magnitude shot down Orion and Hydra!
> 
> I quit at 3h a.m., because I had to take frequent breaks to thaw my 
> completely
> frozen toes by running around and the moonlight became quite annoying. I
> spent the next several hours taking advantage of good seeing, observing and
> imaging Saturn with a C9.25 and a firewire camera. Much detail was seen on
> the ringed planet and its rings. We left after six in the morning, dead 
> tired
> and deep frozen and just in time to catch the morning rush hour - I arrived
> home at 10h in the morning.
> 
> 
> OBSERVING SUMMARY:
> 
> Observer: Jure Atanackov (ATAJU)
> Date: December 13/14, 2006
> Location: Kisovec, Slovenia
> Lat: 46 16.7 N  Long: 14 39.42 E  Elev: 1265m
> Start: 19:14UT  End: 01:50UT
> 
> Period UT     F   teff  LM    GEM  MON  XOR  HYD  COM  Spor
> 19:14-20:16  1.00 1.03  7.09   63   1    2    0    -    18
> 20:16-21:19  1.00 0.98  7.01   94   1    0    0    -    15
> 21:19-22:21  1.00 1.03  6.96  114   1    1    0    0    19
> 22:21-23:30  1.00 1.05  6.94  117   2    0    1    0    15
> 23:30-00:30  1.00 0.92  6.80  186   2    3    1    0    23
> 00:30-01:50  1.00 1.15  6.45  187   1    1    1    3    15
> 
> Magnitude distributions:
> GEM1: -2(1) -1(4)  0(5) +1(8) +2(15) +3(15) +4(10) +5(5)
> GEM2: -3(1) -1(6)  0(4) +1(5) +2(21) +3(28) +4(20) +5(7) +6(2)
> GEM3: -4(1) -1(2)  0(4) +1(11) +2(22) +3(23) +4(28) +5(21) +6(2)
> GEM4: -1(1)  0(12) +1(9) +2(15) +3(32) +4(30) +5(15) +6(3)
> GEM5: -2(1) -1(2)  0(12) +1(20) +2(24) +3(59) +4(49) +5(14) +6(5)
> GEM6: -3(1) -2(1) -1(2)  0(14) +1(22) +2(35) +3(74) +4(34) +5(4)
> MON:  +2(1) +3(4) +4(3)
> XOR:  +2(2) +4(3)
> HYD:  +1(1) +2(1) +3(1)
> COM:  +1(1) +2(1) +3(1)
> Spor: -5(1)  0(2) +1(5) +2(12) +3(29) +4(37) +5(14) +6(5)
> 
> Clear skies!
> Jure A.
> 
>