(meteorobs) Geminid Max from Southern California

[lunro.imo.usa at cox.net]

Better late than never!

I drove out to the Mojave Desert to meet with Robin Gray to view the Geminid maximum. When I arrived late Monday afternoon  December 13th, skies were partly cloudy with cirrus. We had dinner before it became dark and then sat around the campfire catching up on recent events. We decided to rest around 7:30 local time and we were hoping the skies would improve. When we woke just before midnight, the sky was brilliantly clear with the half moon just about to set in the west. We quicky set up and began viewing by midnight, with me facing north and Robin south. That way we could have better coverage of all possible radiants plus provide better coverage should a fireball occur. 

The moon set at 00:10 PST and the sky became impressively dark. Even with the moon above the horizon, activity was impressive right from the start with many minutes producing mulitple meteors. There were very few lulls in the action. The Geminids were by far the  dominate radiant. It was difficult to judge activity from the southern radiants which were out of my field of view. I was hoping to see more activity from the northen radiants but they were just not that active tonight. 

The strong activity continued for three solid hours until I hit a wall of tiredness near 0300 PST or 1100 Universal Time. I guess the drive took a bit more out of me than I realzed plus I was also recovering from a nasty cold. I don't recall struggling to keep my eyes open, rather I simply did not register any activity. Every now and then I would snap out of my trance and record a flurry of meteors and then zone out again. Normally I would get out of the sleeping bag and try to refresh myself, but getting out of that nice, warm, sleeping bag just was not going to happen tonight! What a waste to drive so far only to lose most of two hours during a rich Geminid maximum :-(

The next day was mostly cloudy with more high clouds and unfortunately this time they did not clear during the night.

Still, the Geminids were an exciting experience with many bright meteors. There was only one fireball class meteor but many others of negative magnitudes. This year provided more Geminid trains than I ever recall. It was only six meteors with persistent trains but usually I only see one or two trained Geminids per night.

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Observer: Robert Lunsford (LUNRO)
Date: 10-Dec 14 Mean Solar Long: 262.159
Beginning Time (UT) 0800 Ending Time (UT) 1300
Total TeFF: 3.55

LOCATION: Field Road Site, CA, USA
LONG: 116 33' 17" W LAT: 35 02' 04" N
Elevation: 630 m Bortle Scale: Class 3: Rural Sky
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 44-69%
Ending Temperature/Relative Humidity: 39-81%
METHOD: Visual Recording on Tape
--------------------------
Showers Observed
ANT   06:20 (095) +23     00-02-01-00-00      3 Total
COM   11:30 (173) +18     02-00-01-00-00      3 Total
DAD   14:04 (211) +57     00-00-01-00-00      1 Total
DLM   10:26 (156) +34     01-00-00-01-02      4 Total
GEM   07:33 (113) +32     87-83-76-30-19    295 Total
HYD   08:38 (130) +01     00-00-00-00-00      0 Total
MON   06:50 (103) +07     01-00-00-00-00      1 Total
SPO                                      09-08-11-05-02     35 Total

Hourly Counts                100-93-90-36-23    342 Total
---------------------------
Period 1   0800-0900 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.67
FOV 090 +70   TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 262.075

Meteor Data:
COM 2, DLM 1, GEM 87, MON 1, SPO 9,  TOTAL 100

Magnitude Distribution

COM -1 (1) +5 (1)   Mean +2.00
DLM +3 (1)              Mean +3.00
GEM -2 (4) -1 (4) 0 (12) +1 (17) +2 (22) +3 (19) +4 (6) +5 (3) Mean +1.67
MON +3 (1)             Mean +3.00
SPO  0 (1) +2 (2) +3 (2) +4 (2) +5 (2) Mean +3.11

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

Period 2   0900-1000 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.79
FOV 105 +70   TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 262.117

Meteor Data:

ANT 2, GEM 83, SPO 8,  TOTAL 93

Magnitude Distribution

ANT +2 (1) +3 (1)   Mean +2.50
GEM -5 (1) -3 (3) -2 (5) -1 (5) 0 (7) +1 (18) +2 (16) +3 (15) +4 (9) +5 (4) Mean +1.47
SPO +1 (1) +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (2) +5 (3) Mean +3.62

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

Period 3   1000-1100 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.61
FOV 120 +70   TOTAL   TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 262.159

Meteor Data:
ANT 1, COM 1, DAD 1, GEM 76, SPO 11, TOTAL 90

Magnitude Distribution

ANT  0 (1)            Mean +0.00
COM +1 (1)          Mean +1.00
DAD +1 (1)          Mean +1.00
GEM -4 (2) -3 (1) -2 (3) -1 (1) 0 (6) +1 (18) +2 (16) +3 (19) +4 (9) +5 (1) Mean +1.72
SPO  0 (3) +1 (1) +2 (2) +3 (2) +4 (2) +5 (1) Mean +2.18

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

Period 4   1100-1200 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.47
FOV 135 +70   TOTAL TeFF: 0.33
Mean Solar Long: 262.202

Meteor Data:
DLM 1, GEM 30, SPO 5, TOTAL 37

Magnitude Distribution

DLM +3 (1)          Mean +3.00
GEM -4 (1) -1 (2) 0 (4) +1 (6) +2 (3) +3 (6) +4 (5) +5 (3) Mean +1.47
SPO +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (2) Mean +3.80

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

Period 5 1200-1300 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds) Mean LM 6.16
FOV 150 +70 TOTAL TeFF: 0.25
Mean Solar Long: 262.244

Meteor Data:
DLM 2, GEM 19, SPO 2, TOTAL 23

Magnitude Distribution

DLM +2 (2)          Mean +2.00
GEM -3 (2)  0 (2) +1 (8) +2 (3) +3 (3) +4 (1) Mean +1.11
SPO -1 (1) +4 (1)   Mean +1.50

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

Total Magnitude Distribution
ANT  0 (1) +2 (1) +3 (1)  Mean +1.67
COM -1 (1) +1 (1) +5 (1)  Mean +1.67
DAD +1 (1)                Mean +1.00
GEM -5 (1) -4 (3) -3 (6) -2 (12) -1 (12) 0 (31) +1 (67) +2 (60) +3 (62) +4 (30) +5 (11) Mean +1.62
MON +3 (1)                Mean +3.00
SPO -1 (1) 0 (4) +1 (2) +2 (6) +3 (6) +4 (8) +5 (8) Mean +2.75