[Chaos-l] Geminid observing report, 12/13-14/2012

[Jon Stewart-Taylor]

Hi all.  I observed the Geminids from about 12:20 'til 1:47 Thursday  
night.   In an indication of what the meteors would be like, 4  
Geminids flashed by while i was setting up but  before i was ready to  
start observing.

I was using the "Perseids" application on an Android device to count  
the meteors. I collected 58 Geminids and 4 sporadics.  My impression  
was that there were a _lot_ of bright meteors, with the majority first  
magnitude or brighter.  Quite a few of them had bright trains, but  
only a few left afterglow.

The best meteor of the night started near zenith, and continued down  
below the horizon.  It was at least as bright as Jupite with a bright  
green head.  Surprisingly, it didn't leave an afterglow, but i can't  
hold that against it.  It was the most spectacular meteor i've seen so  
far.

This was my second meteor shower using "Perseids".   This time i ran  
an extension cord out, plugged in the charger, and turned off the  
screen time-out.  It's much better than paper-and-pencil.  For  
"unexciting" meteors, if i don't care about recording magnitudes, i  
can pretty much operate without looking at the device.  To record  
extras like afterglow or magnitude i still have to look.  The red  
light and adjustable brightness mean there's little impact on dark  
adaptation.  But, it does mean looking away from the sky and possibly  
missing another meteor while recording.

If anybody's interested, the data file from the Geminids is attached.

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J.
-- 
Jon Stewart-Taylor:  joncst at earthlink.net
Chapel Hill Astronomy: http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos
Cape Fear Astronomy: http://www.capefearastro.org/