(meteorobs) Anybody Watching for GEMs?

[Bruce McCurdy]

> We just activated a ZHR page for the Geminids at the IMO website -- I
> am interested to see if we can get a graph under these poor lunar
> conditions!

    As am I. In answer to previous notes, I will be attempting to observe 
Geminids pre-peak if the weather ever clears here -- winter has arrived with 
a vengeance -- and will observe in bright moonlight if need be on peak 
night.

> Some of you may have read Juergen Rendtel's analysis of the Perseids
> of past years in a recent issue of WGN. His paper taught me that
> observations in years with poor conditions are still very valuable in
> order to keep continuous track of a shower

    I haven't read the paper but am full agreement with this. I have done 
quite a bit of meteor observing in bright moonlight the last couple of years 
especially. While rates are diminished in lockstep with limiting magnitude, 
the character of the shower can nonetheless be divined, even imperfectly, 
only by observing it under whatever conditions might apply. In a similar 
vein observations of the

> -- eventhough it is hard to image something more frustrating than a full 
> moon during a shower's
> maximum :-(

    Especially a full moon passing through the radiant.  Grrr.

    Bruce
    *****