(meteorobs) Observation December 13/14 2013
Pierre Martin
pmartin at teksavvy.com
Thu May 22 21:51:56 EDT 2014
I'm finally catching up on a couple of old reports. Here's my Geminids results from last December. I decided to go out despite the waxing gibbous moon, only a few days to Full. Even with bright skies, the Geminids always put on a decent show. It was a very cold night with the temperature dropping to -28C. Determined to catch my favourite meteor shower, I bundled up and drove to Johnston road, about 45 minutes east of Ottawa. Thankfully, the night was very calm without any windchill factor - otherwise I likely would not have lasted for as long as I did. Raymond Dubois joined me just after 1:00am for a few hours.
In the span of over five hours of observing, I saw 280 meteors (235 Geminids, 32 sporadics and 13 members of other active minor showers). The Geminids provided a number of good fireballs (a -5 and three -4's) and as many as 18 Geminids were in the negative magnitudes. The busiest part of the night was a 15 minute period between 4:17 and 4:32am that had 26 meteors. By then, the Moon was low in the west and the sky quite a bit darker. At the end of the night, the temperature had reached -28C and it was a challenge to pack up my camera equipment - all the cables were frozen stiff.
This was my only night of observing from our long bitterly cold winter. The weather has also been generally poor this Spring. Hopefully this will change very soon!
December 13/14 2013, 05:30-10:45 UT (00:30-05:45 EST)
Location: Johnston Road, Ontario, Canada
(Long: -75 deg 06'; Lat: 45 deg 26')
Observed showers:
Anthelions (ANT) - 06:24 (096) +23
Monocerotids (MON) - 06:56 (104) +07
Geminids (GEM) - 07:36 (114) +32
Sigma Hydrids (HYD) - 08:44 (131) +01
Dec. Leonis Minorids (DLM) - 10:28 (157) +33
December Alpha Draconids (DAD) - 14:00 (210) +58
Period 1: 05:30-06:31 UT; clear; temp -25C, F 1.00; LM 5.00; facing E60 deg; teff 1.01 hr.
GEM: thirty-nine: -3; -2; -1(3); +1(5); +2(9); +3(10); +4(10)
HYD: two; +3(2)
Sporadics: two: 0; +3
Total meteors: forty-three
Period 2: 06:31-07:31 UT; clear; temp -25C, F 1.00; LM 5.00; facing E60 deg; teff 1.00 hr.
GEM: forty-two: -4; -3(2); -2; -1; 0(9) +1(4); +2(7); +3(10); +4(6); +5
MON: two: 0; +4
HYD: one; +3
Sporadics: four: +2(3); +4
Total meteors: forty-nine
Period 3: 07:31-08:31 UT; clear; temp -25C, F 1.00; LM 5.05; facing E60 deg; teff 1.00 hr.
GEM: forty-three: -5; -1(2); 0(7) +1(7); +2(12); +3(10); +4(4)
HYD: two: 0; +3
Sporadics: six: +3(3); +4(3)
Total meteors: fifty-one
Period 4: 08:31-09:31 UT; clear; temp -26C, F 1.00; LM 5.35; facing E60 deg; teff 1.00 hr.
GEM: fifty-four: -4(2); -1(4); 0(7) +1(3); +2(10); +3(16); +4(12)
HYD: two: 0; +4
DAD: one: +4
Sporadics: ten: +1(2); +2(3); +3; +4(4)
Total meteors: sixty-seven
Period 5: 09:31-10:32 UT; clear; temp -27C, F 1.00; LM 5.78; facing E60 deg; teff 1.01 hr.
GEM: forty-nine: -2(3); -1(2); 0(5) +1(8); +2(9); +3(11); +4(10); +5
HYD: two: +4; +5
DLM: one: +4
Sporadics: five: +1; +2; +4(3)
Total meteors: fifty-seven
Period 6: 10:32-10:45 UT; clear; temp -28C, F 1.00; LM 6.00; facing E60 deg; teff 0.21 hr.
GEM: eight: +1; +2(2); +3(5)
Sporadics: four: +3; +4(2); +5
Total meteors: twelve
Clear skies,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
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