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(meteorobs) Re: Dec 12/13 Meteor Observations From Southern California (Correction)
Sorry Gang!
The dates should read December 13/14!
Bob
Robert Lunsford wrote:
>
> For the night of maximum activity for the Geminids I drove 200 miles to
> Joshua Tree National Park, located in the desert roughly half-way
> between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I spent the entire morning packing
> and running errands and left an hour later than anticipated. The weather
> was completely overcast with cirrus the entire way up there. Robert
> Gardner was waiting for me when I arrived at the visitors center and we
> spoke of the strategies for finding a suitable site to watch the show.
> We chose to stay close to the main road and found a great site at the
> picnic area that included rest rooms! Robert and I spent about an hour
> there and watched a beautiful sunset. Robert was a joy as he has a great
> sense of humor and is very knowledgeable in science and mathematics.
> Robert needed some rest so he decided to head to Indio to get a motel
> and I needed a nap too since I had been up since 1am. I simply slept in
> the bed of my truck as I was not up to driving.
>
> Robert returned around 9:30pm and the sound of his car woke me.
> Miraculously the sky was now mostly clear so we began to set up our cots
> and equipment. I began counting at 1000pm local time and the Geminids
> were falling impressively. Only 4 minutes into the watch there was a -2
> yellow Geminid heading north that produce a train, the only trained
> Geminid I saw all night. There were also many faint Geminids visible
> under the desert sky. Unfortunately this turned out to be the only
> really clear hour as strands of thin cirrus soon arrived and affected
> the limiting magnitude and the ability to see all of those faint
> meteors.
>
> Don Barnett arrived with his son and daughter sometime around 11pm. We
> were soon greeted with the first fireball of the night at 1138, a short
> -4 Geminid that appeared very close to the radiant. To me this fireball
> had a yellow hue but both Robert and Don stated that it was distinctly
> blue to them. There were lots more Ohh's and Ahh's the first few hours
> with most of them heading west beyond my field of view.
>
> We were having a great time with lots of interesting conversation. The
> kids were mostly enjoying the meteors. It was funny to me as the kids
> seemed to enjoy the very faint ones just as much as the brighter
> meteors. Don's daughter as soon snoozing away while his son lasted most
> of the night. I'm not sure if she was asleep when the big one arrived,
> but if she was we certainly woke her up at 12:34am with lots of
> hollering as a -9 Geminid fireball shot past Orion heading toward the
> southwest. It produced an incredible blue flash that lit the earth and
> clouds. The meteor itself was bright pure blue and produce absolutely no
> train or wake. It was gone just as fast as it appeared.
>
> At 2:00am I decided to face west to try to catch some of the activity
> that was eluding me. Naturally most of the good stuff now decided to
> head east! I also grabbed some chips as I was also getting a bit hungry.
> At this time one of the local inhabitants, a friendly kangaroo rat,
> decide that he liked chips too. Every time I reached for the chips he
> was there trying to get some too. It was a bit unnerving to have him
> crawling on your hand but better a furry little rodent than a tarantula
> or a scorpion! I finally ended up giving him a handful and locking the
> remainder up.
>
> That 3 hour nap must not have recharged my battery fully as I now became
> fatigued and had to take a break at 03:00am for a quick snooze. I woke
> up feeling a bit better and resumed counting at the bottom of the hour.
> I did not realize that I had gone through so much tape on my cassette
> recorder and my last meteor was recorded at 4:58am. The recorder is
> suppose to shut off with a audible "click" but it didn't and I probably
> missed recording 30 meteors. The highlight of that period was a bright
> Coma Berencid. This meteor was intensely red-orange and the closest
> meteor to being red I have ever seen. I was surprised that a swift
> meteor such as a Coma Berencid produced such as color since I see mostly
> blue meteors from this shower.
>
> All in all it was a good display shared with wonderful people. I only
> wish it had not passed by so quickly. Oh well, there is always the
> upcoming Quadrantids!
>
>
> December 13/14 1999
>
> 0600-0700 UT 1.00 6.37 0 COM 88 GEM 0 HYD 1 MON 0 PUP
> 1 XOR 11 SPO 101 TOTAL
>
> 0700-0800 UT 1.00 6.02 0 COM 64 GEM 0 HYD 0 MON 0 PUP
> 0 XOR 6 SPO 70 TOTAL
>
> 0800-0900 UT 1.00 5.91 0 COM 61 GEM 0 HYD 0 MON 0 PUP
> 0 XOR 8 SPO 69 TOTAL
>
> 0900-1000 UT 1.00 6.08 0 COM 63 GEM 0 HYD 0 MON 0 PUP
> 0 XOR 3 SPO 66 TOTAL
>
> 1000-1100 UT 0.83 5.58 0 COM 38 GEM 0 HYD 0 MON 0 PUP
> 0 XOR 4 SPO 42 TOTAL
>
> 1100-1200 UT 0.50 5.57 0 COM 23 GEM 1 HYD 0 MON 0 PUP
> 0 XOR 3 SPO 27 TOTAL
>
> 1200-1300 UT 1.00 5.96 0 COM 44 GEM 0 HYD 1 MON 0 PUP
> 0 XOR 5 SPO 50 TOTAL
>
> TOTALS: 6.33 5.96 0 COM 381 GEM 1 HYD 2 MON 0 PUP
> 1 XOR 40 SPO 425 TOTAL
>
> The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
> which is PST + 8 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
> particular hour actually spent observing the sky. Time was lost for
> plotting and data entry tonight. The third column gives the average
> limiting magnitude estimated during each period with a minimum of 4
> estimates using at least 2 and preferably 3 different sky areas close to
> my center of view. The last several columns list the activity seen
> during each period.
>
> I was facing East at an altitude of 60 degrees from 0600-1000 and then
> west at an altitude of 60 degrees from 1000-1300. Breaks were taken
> between 1048 and 1058 and also between 1100 and 1130 UT. All data was
> recorded on audio cassette. COM = Coma Berenicids, GEM = Geminids, HYD =
> Sigma Hydrids, MON = Monocerotids, PUP = Puppid-Velids, XOR = Chi
> Orionids, and SPO = Sporadic (random activity).
>
> Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 42 F (6 C) 20%
> Ending " " " 37 F (3 C) 20%
>
> MAGNITUDES:
>
> GEM: -9 (1) -5 (1) -4 (1) -3 (1) -2 (5) -1 (14) 0 (36)
> +1 (56) +2 (76) +3 (104) +4 (62) +5 (22) +6 (2) AVERAGE: +2.22
> HYD: +4 (1) AVERAGE: +4.00
> MON: +2 (1) +4 (1) AVERAGE: +3.00
> XOR: +4 (1) AVERAGE: +4.00
> SPO: 0 (2) +1 (4) +2 (3) +3 (20) +4 (11) +5 (1) AVERAGE: +2.98
>
> Bob Lunsford
> San Diego, CA USA
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