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(meteorobs) Late Gems & Possible Ursid
Post-maximum Geminid Obs. from Greenbelt, Maryland 390016N 0765233W
I was able to get a good hour of late Geminid observing in last evening,
and although the Geminids were still active, they were few in number. I
did manage to see what I think was an early Ursid! The meteor lined up with
the expected location of the radiant, and the speed was about right, perhaps
a bit slow, but I'm calling it an Ursid as slower meteor are expected in the
evening hours, although I can't rule out a chance alignment.
It was the best meteor I saw. It was 0 magnitude, yellow, and fragmented
in flight. According to most lists, the Ursids start on December 17th anyway;
so seeing one on the 16th shouldn't be that hard to believe. Richard Taibi is
absolutely correct that more observations of this meteor stream are needed,
during, before, and after the expected time of maximum, not just at the max.
This possible early detection of Ursid activity begs for more pre-maximum
observations. Below is a brief breakdown of what was seen.
DATE TIME (UT) LM %Obst. GEM XOR MON HYD URS SPO Total FOV
Dec.15/16 2:06-3:06 5.0 0% 2 1 0 0 1 2 6 6.5+30
Magnitude Distribution
0 1 2 3 4 Ave.
GEM 0 1 0 0 1 2.5
XOR 0 0 0 0 1 4.0
MON 0 0 0 0 0 N/A
HYD 0 0 0 0 0 N/A
URS 1 0 0 0 0 0.0
SPO 0 0 0 0 1 4.0
Happy Holidays!
GWG
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