(meteorobs) Ursids from Russia

Pavel Zhavoronkov pavel-syr at yandex.ru
Wed Dec 24 08:56:05 EST 2014


Hi, all! Initially, here in Kaukasus mountains (Russia) near mt. Elbrus weather forecast is not cooperative for me, but at 18:00 UT 22 DEC the sky began to clear and for my observing session from 18:30 22 DEC (UT) to 01:30 23 DEC (UT) the sky condition was very good. My observing site is slightly light polluted from north and therefore my SQM = 20.9 for this part of the sky.
Limiting magnitude was near 6.0 mag. Site latitude is 43 degree, 1600 meters above sea level.

By my observing results, Ursids had a little increasing of level of its activity in that year. Here is my report:

18:40 - 19:20 (UT) |  No Ursids were seen.

19:30 - 20:00 (UT) |   3 Ursids: red meteor (1 mag.), dim meteor (4.5 mag) almost immediately after first meteor, very short 3 mag.               				         Ursid exactly from radiant point.

20:10 - 20:50 (UT) |  No Ursids were seen.

21:40 - 22:30 (UT) |   4 Ursids: relatively faint meteors from 3.0 mag to 5.5 mag.

00:10 - 01:10 (UT) |  10 Ursids: two of them had -2 mag. and prominent long dusty trail, others was enough dim - from 4.0 mag. to 			                           6.0 mag.

Teff = 3.6 hours
Total amount of Ursids meteors: 17

Usually, meteors appeared by groups of 2-3, after that followed time of no activity.

On my opinion, for those who want to observe the most faint meteors, Ursids is best meteor shower for it - because, generally, by my experience, it consists from a lot of that faint meteors. 

For me, it was enough spectacular Ursids meteor sky show! It was beautyful observing night!

Clear skies for all!

Pavel Zhavoronkov, from Russia.


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