(meteorobs) Meteor Obs. Dec. 16th - Mathias, WVa

[george]

            Screech Owl Hill Observatory,  Mountain Meadows  
                   Mathias, West Virginia - December 16, 2015  

  We finally had a clear night for meteor watching and I was able to get 
in a couple hours of some formal observing.  The transparency was very
good after 5:45 UT when all the clouds (that almost spoiled the Geminids
completely days earlier) finally were gone.  It was also clear that the GEMs 
were nearly over, being about the same hourly rate as the Sporadic rate, 
but the December Leonis Minorids (DLM) were the big surprise, with seven 
being seen from 7:07 to 7:38 UT and nine from 6:28 to 7:38 UT.  I stopped 
a bit early so I could observe C/2013 US10 Catalina, which looked very nice 
in my 12x63 Optolyth Royal binoculars on a tripod, sporting a short dust tail 
and a stellar central condensation in the coma.  

   Date     Time (UT)   LM   %Obst.     FOV   
12/16/15  5:45-6:45    6.4       0%     11+70   
ANT  MON  GEM  HYD  DLM  SPO  Total  
  1        1        6        1        2       7       18

   Date     Time (UT)   LM   %Obst.     FOV   
12/16/15  6:45-7:45    6.6       0%     12+70   
ANT  MON  GEM  HYD  DLM  SPO  Total  
  2        0        9        0        7       9       27

Magn. Distributions Dec. 16, 2015 - 05:45-07:45 UT - LM=6.5 
           0    1    2    3    4    5   Total   Ave. 
ANT    0    0    1    1    1    0      3      3.0
MON   0    0    1    0    0    0      1      2.0
GEM   1    1    4    4    2    3     15     2.9
HYD    0    1    0    0    0    0      1      1.0
DLM    0    2    2    1    1    3      9      3.1
SPO    0    1    3    4    3    5     16     3.5

Starry Skies,
GWG