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(meteorobs) December 12, 2002 Meteor Observations form California

This was a strange session. I started at midnight local time but could 
not stay awake for the life of me. Earlier in the evening my nap was 
interrupted by a slight emergency, the christmas tree was falling over. 
Well dad stumbled out of bed to the rescue. After the giant sequoia was 
secure again I could not go back to sleep so I had to settle for only 
two hours rest. I was paying the price now as I could not stay awake. 
During the first hour there was an obvious gap of 24 minutes where I was 
obviously out. I managed to record 11 meteors before dozing off. The 
second hour had yet another 25 minute gap late in that period yet I 
managed to see another 15 meteors. I think it would be fair to say that 
my effective time for the first two hours was .5 or 30 minutes each.

Those walks in the cold air and rubbing cold water on my face finally 
woke me completely by the third hour. I had an excellent hour with 33 
meteors seen, and several plotted in the northern sky, still looking for 
that reclusive radiant in Ursa Major.

During the fourth hour is where it starts getting weird. The sporadic 
activity drops to near nothing. No I was not asleep again! The Geminid 
counts also dropped by 39 percent from the previous hour. Someone just 
decided to turn the spigot on low!

The final hour rebounded slightly as sporadic activity was up again. The 
Geminid rates continued to drop as the radiant descended into the 
western sky.

It was a bit strange facing north for the Geminids. I could still see 
the radiant high above but I could still see a lot of activity low in 
the north. I kept imagining the view those south of the equator were 
seeing with the constellations high in my north just skimming their 
northern horizon. It was also odd to look "way back" and see the 
constellations in the high southern sky appear upside down, such as 
Orion with Betelgeuse in the lower portion of the constellation.

Plots revealed a wide radiant with 5 meteor paths converging near 11:30 
(172)+45. I'm not convinced this is my mystery radiant but I will keep 
working on this project and report my progress.

December 12, 2002

0800-0900 UT  0.50  6.50  8 GEM  3 SPO  11 TOTAL

0900-1000 UT  0.50  6.49  7 GEM  8 SPO  15 TOTAL

1000-1100 UT  0.95  6.51  1 ANT  18 GEM  1 HYD  1 SPX  12 SPO  33 TOTAL

1100-1200 UT  1.00  6.47  1 ANT  11 GEM  1 SPO  13 TOTAL

1200-1300 UT  0.97  6.47  8 GEM  2 HYD  1 NPX  8 SPO  19 TOTAL

TOTALS:       3.92  6.48  2 ANT  52 GEM  3 HYD  1 NPX  1 SPX  29 SPO
88 TOTAL

NOTE: I was awake only half of the time during the first two hours.

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 to 
plotting tonight. The third column gives the average limiting magnitude 
estimated during each period. The last several columns list the activity 
seen during each period. I was facing north northeast at an altitude of 
60 degrees during the entire session. No breaks were taken. ANT = 
Antihelions (Chi Orionids), GEM = Geminids, HYD = Sigma Hydrids, NPX = 
Northern Apex, SPX = Southern Apex, and SPO = Sporadics (random activity).

Location: Deerhorn Valley 116 45' 21" W  32 41' 21" N  ELE = 667 m

Bortle Scale Estimate:  Class 3: Rural Sky

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity:   37 F (3 C)  56%
Ending         "         "         "       42 F (6 C)  50%

MAGNITUDES:

ANT:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (1) +5 (1) +6 (0)    AVE: +4.50
GEM:      -2 (1) -1 (3)  0 (4) +1 (4) +2 (9) +3 (15) +4 (13)
           +5 (3) +6 (0)                                       AVE: +2.48
HYD:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (0) +6 (0)    AVE: +3.00
NPX:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0)    AVE: +2.00
SPX:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (1) +5 (0) +6 (0)    AVE: +4.00
SPO:      -1 (1) +1 (2) +2 (4) +3 (7) +4 (12)+5 (2) +6 (1)    AVE: +3.03

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA





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