[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Geminids 2001 from central Texas USA
It was cloudy on the pre-max night, and it's cloudy
tonight, but here we were fortunate that it was clear
for the night of the Geminids maximum.
Summary: December 14 -- 1.17 Teff, 100 GEM, 14 others
During the period 8:00-9:00 UTC two five-minute "bins"
had 11 GEM each, and in .50 Teff during that period I
counted 50 GEM and 7 others. Details below.
The first (casual) Geminid was very short (1/2 degree?),
right near the radiant, at about 4:00 UTC. But I
didn't get settled down for quite a while, so there was
a long period of casual observing. Then after I did
get started with Teff, off and on I had trouble with
drowsiness and even fell asleep for 30-40 minutes.
This was somewhat puzzling as I'd slept nine hours the
night before. I should have had that second cup of
coffee on Thursday, I guess.
I'm also a little bit puzzled by my limiting magnitude
counts versus the seemingly good rates of Geminids that
I saw. I counted star fields over and over but just
could not resolve any more stars than I report. Perhaps
it was due to being only about 25 km west of Austin and
looking southeast. The sky was completely clear as far
as I could tell. There was 5% or less obstruction of my
field of view due to trees to the sides and ground below
(looking somewhat up a low hillside). The temperature
was a few degrees above freezing.
At about 7:59:30, while I was taking one of many breaks,
the ground was lit up quite brightly for about a second.
I turned around too late to see the fireball that had
been in the west or NW.
Just as several others have mentioned, I also noticed
clustering -- two or three minutes with no GEMs, and
then a couple of minutes with several of them. A few
were very nearly simultaneous. I wish I had used 1-min
bins.
I did not attempt to determine magnitudes. Maybe some
night I will. I feel that if I used more distinctions
than "fireball, bright, medium, or faint" I would be
making them up.
December 13-14, 2001 (December 14 UTC)
Dripping Springs, Texas, USA: 30.190N, 98.086W, 300 m.
Session: 06:35:00-10:00:00 UTC
All "bins" are five minutes.
1. Looking roughly RA 7, Dec +16 (right of Jupiter)
LM, using IMO field #17 (Auriga), 8 stars = +4.6
Begin . . . . End Teff LM GEM Other
06:35:00-06:40:00 .083 +4.6 8 0
06:42:00-06:47:00 .083 +4.6 5 1
06:50:00-06:55:00 .083 +4.6 7 0
2. Looking roughly RA 7, Dec +20 (below Jupiter)
LM, using IMO field #4 (Gemini), 7 stars = +5.1
Begin . . . . End Teff LM GEM Other
07:30:00-07:35:00 .083 +5.1 5 0
07:36:00-07:41:00 .083 +5.1 6 1
3. Looking at the Beehive (M44), RA 8:40, Dec +20
LM, using IMO field #4 (Gemini), 7 stars = +5.1
Begin . . . . End Teff LM GEM Other
08:06:00-08:11:00 .083 +5.1 6 3
08:12:00-08:17:00 .083 +5.1 11 2
08:19:00-08:24:00 .083 +5.1 7 0
08:30:00-08:35:00 .083 +5.1 9 1
08:39:00-08:44:00 .083 +5.1 6 0
08:50:00-08:55:00 .083 +5.1 11 1
(Somewhere in here is where I fell asleep.)
4. Looking at Leo, RA 10:00, Dec +22
LM, using IMO field #9 (Leo), 9 stars = +5.0
Begin . . . . End Teff LM GEM Other
09:41:00-09:46:00 .083 +5.0 8 3
09:47:00-09:52:00 .083 +5.0 6 1
09:55:00-10:00:00 .083 +5.0 5 1
I stopped at 10:00 UTC (4:00 a.m. local) due to having
to go to work on Friday (afternoon).
On the way back to town, through the car windshield, I
saw one very good GEM going nearly straight down that
went 15 to 25 degrees from when it entered view until
it disappeared.
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
http://wwwvms.utexasdot edu/~ecannon/meteorlinks.html
The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
If you are interested in complete links on the 2001 LEONIDS, see:
http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html