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(meteorobs) Geminids from Central Texas
Partly motivated by feeling a duty to all of you who
were clouded in, I braved the central Texas "cold"
this morning. (When I concluded the session, I
found light ice on my car, briefcase and radio, so
apparently at least their surfaces got to zero deg.
Celsius. It is a very rare thing when I need to
scrape ice off my windshield! Water in bottle and
nearby puddle from rain 36 hours before did not
freeze.) Sky was clear, wind light to calm, high
humidity. I really was too cold most of the time
and even got a leg cramp at one point when getting up
from my lawn chair.
I got to the site before moonset but waited until at
least 10 minutes after it set to begin. I realize
this is just a little better than anecdotal (no
magnitudes, no distinguishing of minor radiants), but
here it is anyway:
Night of December 13/14, 2002
Location 30.31N, 98.26W, 240 meters
Start 8:50, End 12:00 UTC (2:50-6:00 a.m. local time)
Teff 2.42 hr (145 minutes)
LM: about 5.1? (surprised it wasn't better*)
FOV: altitude 65, azimuth 270
Geminids 248 (raw average over 100/hour)
Others 38
(Times have implied ":00"; five-minute counting
periods with mostly one-minute breaks; longer breaks
were when I was trying to warm up.)
_Beg.- End. Ge, Others
08:50-08:55 19, 2
08:56-09:01 11, 0
09:02-09:07 11, 0
09:08-09:13 14, 1
09:14-09:19 5, 0
09:20-09:25 6, 2
09:30-09:35 8, 1
09:40-09:45 9, 0
09:46-09:51 11, 0
09:52-09:57 7, 0
09:58-10:03 9, 3
10:04-10:09 5, 2
10:10-10:15 14, 0
10:16-10:21 7, 1
10:22-10:27 9, 3
10:28-10:33 7, 1
10:34-10:39 9, 2
10:40-10:45 5, 2
10:55-11:00 5, 0
11:01-11:06 13, 3
11:07-11:12 7, 4
11:13-11:18 7, 2
11:19-11:24 8, 1
11:25-11:30 9, 1
11:31-11:36 5, 0
11:37-11:42 7, 0
11:43-11:48 8, 3
11:49-11:54 6, 2
11:55-12:00 7, 2
I saw at least a few pairs of Geminids. I don't think
any of the Gems was much brighter than -4. I did see
three or four from the car as I was nearing the site.
The "Others" were mostly from either due south or from
seemingly the vicinity of Leo/Jupiter (several); plus a
couple that I thought might have been Ursids. It struck
me that almost none moved generally west to east. The
ones from the south all seemed pretty fast. One long
fast northbound one went past Jupiter and was as bright
as the planet.
*I wonder if my getting-old glasses are enough out of
correct prescription that I'm having trouble resolving
fainter stars.... I used the star areas in Gemini,
Taurus, Auriga, and Leo at the end. It's a nice site out
in the country, about 50 km west of Austin and farther
than that north of San Antonio.
Must get a little sleep.
Ed Cannon - ecannon @ mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
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