(meteorobs) Dec 12/13 2013 Geminid observation from north Florida

Sat Dec 14 11:22:46 EST 2013

Hi Pete and list,

I agree regarding colours. Last night I went out after a front passed through leaving a short window of clear skies behind it, and spent roughly an hour (between 1:45UT - 02:45UT on the 14th) casually observing from our driveway. I observed 73 Gems and 7 sporadics. Soon after I started to observe there was a pair of near simultaneous negative magnitude Gems low down in the sky, both of which had a distinct purple colour. Later on there was -5 mag Gem in the zenith that looked very yellow, verging on orange, and another negative magnitude (perhaps -3 mag) Gem that started out pure white, but was distinctly green in the fraction of a second before it disappeared.

There was a good smattering of negative magnitude Gems (including 5 of fireball class), and apart from the examples mentioned above, they all looked cool (blue) white in colour to me. In previous years observing Gems they have either looked mostly yellow (warm) off-white or (like this year) cool-white, but I have never seen so many other colours as I did this year. My recollection from recent years is that perhaps one or two bright Gems out of a few hundred had any other colour.

Even this years Perseids seemed less colourful than the Gems, which I fund unusual since the Perseids are usually the most colourful major shower of the year for me!

Colours aside, I was also fortunate to catch a pair of perfectly simultaneous Gems that were perhaps 10 degrees apart in the sky, exactly the same height in the sky. It looked as if one was a perfect mirror reflection of the other in terms of brightness, path length, and all other aspects.

Leo

________________________________
 From: "Bias, Peter V" <pbias at flsouthern.edu>
To: Meteor science and meteor observing <meteorobs at meteorobs.org> 
Sent: Saturday, 14 December 2013, 14:47
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Dec 12/13 2013 Geminid observation from north Florida

Paul and list,

I am down in central Florida and we had the same front coming through but not quite as far south with the heavy clouds. We had some clear skies off and on before midnight and allowed some windows of opportunity. I just watched; didn't even take note of the times because I knew the data would be funky, but I saw 12 Gems between roughly 10:30 EST and 11:00. One was just like Paul mentioned although I think it was considerably brighter  (seems like a wild guess when nothing to compare it too; but brighter than Venus during flares) - multi colors, flaring, spitting off parts, etc. Best Geminid I've ever seen - and I've been watching Geminids since 1970. Several of the meteors were colorful and bright - again, something I've not seen with the Geminids before. They usually seem to me to appear as a milky color without the colorful flashes, but not last night. One other oddity (and I'm not sure if I even saw it correctly!) - one meteor seemed to start out as a
 black meteor and then 
switch over to a bright flashing meteor farther along the path. Never saw this before either. Crazy night.

   Pete in Lakeland
________________________________________
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org [meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] on behalf of Paul Jones [jonesp0854 at gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 9:28 AM
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum
Subject: (meteorobs) Dec 12/13 2013 Geminid observation from north Florida

Hello again meteor fanatics,
     I  promised full data on my Geminid observations from yesterday morning and they follow below.  I was hoping to do a repeat observation this morning, but yet another cold front descended rapidly down upon us here in north Florida and slammed the door shut on us.
    However, in the "extremely lucky catch" department, early last evening, before the frontal clouds took over, I caught a stunning, multi-colored  "windshield" Geminid earthgrazer while driving back home from an errand to the local grocery store.  It was just after 7:00 pm. local time and I was facing west looking at how bright Venus was low in the sky, when a stunning -3 Geminid earthgrazer skipped, flashed and flared slowly through about 40 degrees of sky right next to Venus!    It really put on an amazing lightshow indeed as it dropped into the western horizon.  It was yellow, orange, blue and turquoise among other colors, leaving a sparkly silver train behind it.  It flared up and died down about four times on its path, each time a different color when it re-flared again.  Wow, was she ever a beauty!.
Anyway, here is the data from yesterday morning:

Dec. 12/13, 2013, Observer: Paul Jones, Location: 5 miles SW of St. Augustine, Florida, Total Teff: 2.25 hours, LM: 6.0, Sky conditions: clear (first hour), 20% cloud interference (second hour) Facing: south

0830 -0930 UT (0330 -0430 EST)
63 Geminids
3 sigma Hydrids
2 Anthelions
12 Sporadics
80 total meteors

0930 -1045 UT (0430 - 0545 EST)
45 Geminids
2 sigma Hydrids
18 sporadics
65 total meteors

Magnitudes:

Gems: -2 (1), -1 (1), 0 (1), +1 (4), +2 (16), +3 (39), +4 (31), +5 (15)

sigma Hydrids: +1 (1), +2 (1), +3 (2), +4 (1)

Anthelions: 0 (1), +3 (1)

Sporadics (0 (2), +1 (3), +2 (6), +3 (6, +4 (7). +5 (4)

Only five of the 108 Geminids I saw left trains and the only observed color I had was a few with yellow.  The zero mag Anthelion was a blue-white beauty that left a nice train as it practically bisected the Geminid radiant.
During that second hour, 10 of the 18 sporadics I saw left trains, fully outperforming the Gems in that one department.
All in all, I would say the Geminids put on a great show in 2013, albeit definitely on the fainter side for the most part it seemed to me.  At least compared to previous years I've seen them, particularly in 2007 when Geminid fireballs were flying left and right it seemed!   Each year is a different story, though.  That's why we love to get out and see them so much!!
Looking forward to 2014 and a good year to catch the Quadrantids!  Good luck to all...

Clear skies, Paul in St. Augustine, Florida

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