(meteorobs) Geminids this morning from Putnam Valley, NY
Skywayinc at aol.com
Skywayinc at aol.com
Fri Dec 14 11:19:31 EST 2012
After a long day at the television station (and promoting the Geminids on
all seven of my weathercasts) I arrived home at 11:30 p.m. somewhat worn
out; quite frankly I was ready to head straight for bed, but the sky was
clear and I already dragged out my long summer lounge chair from earlier in the
day, so I got myself prepared for viewing some "pre-Christmas fireworks."
I watched from my deck . . . not really the best place to observe because
I was severely restricted to seeing only about 40% of the sky. I would see
more from my front driveway, but it's Christmas time and only at this time
of the year, we have a set of lantern lights running down the driveway to
augment the rest of our holiday lighting display. Most of the lights are
on timers and shut off at around midnight. But the lanterns (6 of them)
automatically turn on at dusk and turn off at dawn. For most of the year,
they're off because the bulbs are unscrewed. If I wanted to unscrew them last
night, I'd have to get a ladder (each is mounted on a 7-foot pole) and
that's something I did not care to do in the middle of a cold December night.
By observing from the deck, my house blocked out most of the light
emanating from the lanterns . . . though the trade off was being able to see less
of the sky.
I signed on at 12:40 a.m. EST and stayed out until 1:30 a.m. In my coat
pocket I had a counter; each time I saw a meteor, I would click the counter.
When I went inside to warm up, I saw that I had clicked off 26. After
having a cup of hot tea I headed out again at 1:45 a.m. and remained until
2:25 a.m. I called it a night at that point, in part because I was starting
to nod off and also because my winter coat had developed a very fine layer
of frost! It was 26F and there was not a breath of wind. Skies were mainly
clear, although occasionally a few patchy/streaky cirrus clouds would
glide on by, chiefly from my north and west. Limiting magnitude was around +5
and transparency was rated as good-to-excellent. The Beehive cluster for
instance, stood out like the proverbial soar thumb.
Upon heading back inside, I saw that I had counted off another 14, making
a total of 40 for 90 minutes of observing.
Of the 40, 39 were Geminids. One was a slow sporadic that cut across Lynx
and headed toward the Geminid radiant.
As for the "Gems" they were all typical for this shower . . . moving with
roughly half the speed of a Leonid or Perseid; at a more "leisurely" pace.
The majority were between 2nd and 3rd magnitude. I did see three Geminids
that could be categorized as fireballs . . . all three appeared pure
silvery white, rivaled Jupiter in brightness (probably around magnitude -3) and
left smoky vapor trains lasting about 3 or 4 seconds. Those three, in fact,
were the only ones to leave any kind of persistent trail or train.
And I noticed the "clumping effect." There were times when I'd see
nothing for five or six minutes and at other times I'd two or three in quick
succession. In fact . . . on my second outing, I had just gone through a
particularly long lull period and was ready to call it quits at 2 a.m. Suddenly,
"bing," "bing" "BANG!" Three bright "Gems" in less than ten seconds . .
. the third and final one, being one of those magnitude -3 beauties I
described above. It was as if Castor and Pollux were saying: "Hey . . . don't
go yet! We've still have a few surprises for you." So I stuck it out for
another 25 minutes.
And I think I might have actually missed a significantly bright bolide.
At around 2:15 a.m., I saw what looked like the flickering effect of what in
the summertime we call heat lightning. Of course, no way that could
happen on a mid-December night. I quickly turned around but didn't see any
train or trail . . . so if this was a bolide it probably flared either behind
my house or amidst a nearby barren tree line.
When you take obstructions into account, the actual hourly rate at my
location was probably closer to 60 or 65. In all, an entertaining, albeit cold
show. I'll head out again tonight to see if there are any "bright
leftovers."
-- joe rao
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