(meteorobs) 2014 GEM peak from Stafford, Virginia

[suejam1 at juno.com]

Glad to see so many of the familiar names of several Meteor Observing Comrades from several decades of viewing those wonderful "fleeting spectacles" in the sky!  Enduring the bitter Virginia cold (-3 degrees C) for most of the 2.42 hours of observing from the deck of our Stafford Home (6.0 limiting mag. ), this Florida "fellow" saw 107 meteors (most were Geminids) between 0210 -0530 UT.   Of note, my first meteor seen at 0204 UT (while setting up) was a green 1st magnitude Geminid and my final meteor observed (0535), before getting into a nice warm bed, was a green 1st magnitude Geminid.  Also, of note was the absence of fireballs last night (may try and take one more peek tonight).  Brightest Geminid seen was a -1 Geminid.  Did manage to see a very slow moving meteor out of the Deep Southern Sky (December Phoenicid or possible reentry?).  It certainly was very enjoyable being able to engage in some meteor observing, once again! In Meteor Observing Affinity - Felix  Felix A. Martinez, EdS, Liberty UnivMasters in Education, Lynchburg CollegeBS in Space Sciences, Univ of FloridaAssociate Chaplain, Potomac Nationals "2014 Carolina League Champions"Diamond Club MinistrySenior Naval Science InstructorStafford Senior High SchoolFalmouth, VA540-368-1683   Office540-300-1145   Google Universal 

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Paul Jones <jonesp0854 at gmail.com>
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Subject: (meteorobs) 2014 GEM peak from north Florida
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 06:24:16 -0500


Hi all,     Got in two hours of meteor watching nirvana on the meteor moon roof last night before moon rise and the soggy, wet cold combined to convince me my warm bed was a more attractive option (I envy Lew's 61 degrees on the other end of the state!). Under 6.0 skies, I had 105 GEMs between 2 UT and 4 UT ( 44 and 61, the GEM hourly counts), plus a few SPOs and two ANTs.  No fireballs though, the best I could do on GEM mags were one -2 and one -1.  Lots of zeros and +1s still made for a nice show indeed.      Lots of "spurts and lulls"- periods of nothing, followed by short periods of frenzied GEM activity.  Had a few near-simultaneous GEMs occur and several cases of three or four hitting in quick succession.      All in all, seemed to me to be a pretty normal year for them, perhaps a bit fainter on average than usual.  More later when I get all the data sorted out Paul in St. Augustine, FL  
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