(meteorobs) Meteors in Iowa

[Paul Martsching]

At 1:00 am CST the satellite infrared looked like it might clear for a while.  So I went out to McFarland Park. There was a lot of cirrus haze that doesn't show up well on satellite infrared.  I waited a while to see if conditions would improve.  The sky did get better, but not consistently.  I began recording at 1:55 am CDST.  I was surprised how many meteors I saw during the first hour, and how few of them were Geminids.    Conditions deteriorated rapidly during the last fifteen minutes of the second hour, and looking to the West, I could see no hope for things to get any better, so I went home.

10 Dec 2015 0755 - 0855 UT 51 deg F; dew pt 40 deg F; wind SW 14 mph; average LM ~ 5.3; with patches and streaks of cirrus haze; average 10 percent cloud cover; as the cirrus haze moved into the lower eastern sky, it became an opaque obstruction, rather than just worsening the LM; facing mostly East, but any where from NE to SE, where ever the sky was "best"; usually around 60 degrees up because of clouds low along the eastern horizon; teff 1.0 hour
ANT: one: 0
DLM: one: +3
GEM: five: +1; +3(3); +4
HYD: two: +1; +3
MON: one: 0
NOO: one: +3
Sporadics: three: +2(2); +4
Total meteors: fourteen

10 Dec 2015 0855 - 0955 UT 50 deg F; dew pt 40 deg F; wind SW 15 mph; average LM ~5.0; cirrus haze; average cloud cover 10 percent; facing any where from NE to SE 50 - 60 degrees up, where ever sky was "best"; conditions deteriorating rapidly during last 15 minutes; teff 1.0 hour
DLM: one: +2
GEM: seven: - 1; 0; +1(2); +2(2); +3
Sporadics: two: 0; +3
Total meteors: ten

Paul Martsching in Iowa