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(meteorobs) DEC 20th am report from KS & partial Geminid info. for 13/14 Dec.
Hello,
I got 1:45 dark sky observing done from my close-in spot 28 miles
S of Overland Park KS at the Rutlader Wildlife Area, from
0825-1020 UT, (235-420 am CST). I broke the counts down
inot the first :45 min, followed by the complete, correct for longitude
hour from my site. Zenithal star was 5.9 at 0825, 6.0 at 0920, and
6.0 at 1020. Temperature was -2 C. There was a S wind at about
5 knots.
I faced NE at 60-70 degree field the entire session.
0825-0920 11 meteors 9 Sporadic 2 Northern Apex
0920-1020 13 meteors 8 spor., 2 Geminid, 1 Ursid, 1 NPX, 1 SDX
I did rule out a very slow short meteor in the bowl of the little dipper
as a non-Ursid tho it had all the characteristics except missed
radiant by 7+ degrees. The only Ursid I saw shuffled into the atmo-
sphere at 354 am, 89 minutes into the session! It was a 2.5 mag.
reddish meteor seen in the east between Ursa Major and the lower
back end of Leo. Like 4 seen on Dec. 14th, it was rather slow and
fragmenty, giving a rather diffuse streak like chalk instead of a pen on
paper.
Apex activity was nice, no meteors from the ANT areas, and
no meteor brighter than +1.5 seen. Only one train, from a mag.
3 sporadic at 254 am.
Thought I should get this report out, my larger Geminid report is
DONE, but will need a couple hours to log it all on a Lew Gramer
style report sheet.
My larger time frame counts (3) on Dec. 13th-14th from
a site approx. 135 miles WNW of this one -
0418-0518 UT - 54 Gem., 6 Sporadics, 2 Ursids, 3 Chi Or.
z.s. was 6.2 facing West 70 degree elev.
0640-0720 UT - 48 Gem., 4 Spor., 1 Ursid, 1 Chi Orionid, 1 Sigma
Hydrid. z.s. 5.8 facing SW, some light fog trying to materialize.
0730-0830 UT - 57 Geminids, 11 sporadics, 1 Ursid, 2 Chi Orionids.
z.s. 5.8 drawing down to 5.6 at stop, dead time was :10 during this
last hour.
4 Geminids out of 166 tallied left trains. 3 of 21 sporadics, and the
Sigma Hydrid ( a beaut. -1). My daughter and I's best meteor was
a slow deep red/violet sporadic in the zenith from the SW with a
nice terminal flash only 1 minute before the Sigma Hydrid, mag.
-2.5. We DEFINITELY agree on the clustering appearance of
the Geminids, esp. during the evening session, very pronounced
"flurries" of them with 2 or 3 min. lulls.
Our longer report will be submitted most likely just after the holiday.
We are going to suffer a major weather disturbance the night 3-5 days
entering the country this eve. so that is it for me for the Ursids.
Bert Matous
Overland Park KS
USA
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