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(meteorobs) Late Meteor Hunt of December 12/13, 2003!
December 23, 2003
Greetings Meteor Enthusiasts!
I was clouded out on Geminid peak night and the night
after. Nevertheless, Dec. 12/13 was clear and enabled
me to view a few meteors in the evening, including 2
Gems. It was cold at 21 deg. F! In fact, that was
the reason why I stopped to take a break during the
hunt after only five minutes. I wasn’t too cold right
then, but my family thought our bay laurel tree
outside would soon be. Thus, I stopped to help take
it indoors finally so we could continue to have fresh
bay leaves in our homemade spaghetti sauce!
The LM was a problem to record during this hunt since
only one star area yielded usable data. However, I
think I still received a fairly accurate picture of
the sky conditions for my observations. Also, I
could count ~7+ stars in Pleiades during the whole
session.
Meteor #2, as detailed in the report, was a very
short, slow meteor right in the middle of Taurus (the
horns region). At first I called it a Geminid, but
later decided that it was more likely an antihelion
due to the closeness to that radiant, combined with
its slowness and path length. I gave it an “ANT”
designation only because I could not find what one
calls them from their current radiant.
In this report, please note my first attempt at
calculating DCV data, which lies near the end of the
e-mail. The values are naturally only estimates.
However, I hope I understand what I am recording; that
is, the (D)istance from the (C)enter of my field of
(V)iew. Since alpha Ceti was basically my “exact”
center of view, I used the immediate area around the
star as a point to calculate from.
Also, please let me know of any errors you find or
comments you have.
My report begins...
DATE: December 12/13, 2003 BEGIN: 0:44 UT (7:44 EST)
END: 1:30 UT (8:30 EST)
OBSERVER: Mark Fox
LOCATION: Long: 85 deg. 49' W; Lat.: 43 deg. 27' N
City & State: Newaygo, Newaygo, Co., MI USA
Elevation: 762 feet (observed by our lake shore)
Start Temperature: ~21 F (-5.5 C) @ 0:38 UT
End Temperature: ~21 F (-5.5 C) @ 1:34 UT
Wind: Calm.
RECORDING METHOD: Designate Tape Recorder or Manual:
manual (paper & pencil) + a traveling atomic clock
-----------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: (Use 3 letter Codes)
GEM
ANT
SPO
-----------------------------------------------------
GEM RADIANT HEIGHT: about 13-~18. deg.
(From start to end.)
-----------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS:
(On average, 10 sec/meteor should be subtracted for
recording purposes.) 0 = None seen; / = shower not
watched.
PERIOD(UT) FIELD LM TEFF GEM ANT SPO
0:44-1:30 *RA 3h 2m ~5.5 0.567 2 1 1
Dec 4° 5"
*Note: This area is where alpha Ceti (Menkar) is
located.
-----------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -2 -1 0 +0.5 +1 +1.5 +2 +3 +4 +5
GEM 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
ANT 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
SPO 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Total: 4 meteors
-----------------------------------------------------
FIELD OF VIEW OBSCURED:
~90% FROM: 0:44 UT
TO: 1:30 UT
Note: The above percentage is due to trees and severe
light pollution from a nearby town. Otherwise,
however, I had a decent FOV with probably below
average haze near the horizon.
----------------------------------------------------
DEAD TIME: ~ 3 min.
BREAKS: 9 min. (0:49-0:58 UT)
-----------------------------------------------------
LIMITING MAGNITUDE:
AVERAGE
STAR STAR
TIME AREA COUNT LM
0:44 8 ~8 5.3
0:44 4 4 -
0:58 4 4 -
0:58 8 8 5.3
1:23 4 4 -
1:23 8 9 5.5
*MEAN LIMITING MAGNITUDE: ~5.5
*Note: I recorded about 7+ stars in the Pleiades
cluster during the whole session also.
----------------------------------------------------
METEOR DATA:
SPEED
# TIME(UT) SHOWER MAG (1-5) COLOR TRAIN(SEC)
-----------------------------------------------------
1 1:01:20 SPO 2 2-3 Yel. -
2 ~1:09:36 ANT 1 1 Yel. -
3 1:26:50 GEM 1 3 Wh. -
4 1:28:40 GEM 0(or >) ~3 Wh. -
-----------------------------------------------------
PATH AREA
# SHOWER LENGTH OF METEOR
-----------------------------------------------------
1 SPO 5 deg. Between Aur & Gem.
2 ANT 3 deg. Middle of Tau.’s horns.
3 GEM ~20 deg. S. Sky.
4 GEM ~15 deg. S. Sky.
-----------------------------------------------------
# SHOWER “APPROXIMATE” DEGREES / SEC.
1 SPO 5 deg./sec.
2 ANT 2 deg./sec.
3 GEM ~10 deg./sec.
4 GEM 7.5 deg./sec.
-----------------------------------------------------
# SHOWER DCV
1 SPO ~45 deg.
2 ANT 0 deg. (Was looking at Tau.
at the time.)
3 GEM ~25 deg.
4 GEM 20 deg.
-----------------------------------------------------
SPEED (VELOCITY) SCALE:
0 = Stationary
1 = Very Slow
2 = Slow
3 = Medium
4 = Fast
5 = Very Fast
----------------------------------------------------
REMARKS:
1. The meteor time could be off a few seconds.
2. GEM = Geminids; ANT = Antihelions; SPO =
sporadics.
3. Gem. = Gemini; Aur.= Auriga; Tau.= Taurus; etc.
Merry Christmas and Many Merry Ursids!
Mark Fox
Newaygo, MI USA
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