Geminids form Dorset, UK (with radio detection audio)!

Hi all

Had a reasonable view of this years Geminids. I went up to Holt Heath
(fairly dark site near to where I live) Saturday night between 20:00UT
and 21:30UT. In that time I saw around 15 meteors. The moon was
getting quite high up at 21:30UT, so I came home. When I got back, the
sky completely clouded over!

Decided to have a look out on Sunday night and rates were a lot
higher. I was looking and listening to the meteors from:
http://www.tvcomm.pwp.blueyonder.co....o_Pages/Radio/ web
pages, and around 20:40UT the sky had cleared completely. I stayed out
til 22:40UT and saw around 64 Geminids. They were all between mag. +2
and -1. The majority were short, fast and faint (mag. +1). I did see a
few fireball type meteors, but they did not leave very big trails
behind. I had the audio from the above site playing in the background
while watching the display. About 20 seconds after seeing the meteor,
most of the time, I heard the 'ping' from the reflected radio signals.
I guess the delay was due to Internet delays? The moon was getting in
the way at around 22:40UT, and I had an early start for work Monday
morning so I called it a night. Looking at the 6 hour plots on the
radio detection site above, it seems quite a few more were about until
around 01:00UT. I do not know if they were any brighter or more
numerous, but I think the moon would have spoilt later observations.

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 16:18:47 +0000, David Brown
wrote:

Hi all

Had a reasonable view of this years Geminids. I went up to Holt Heath
(fairly dark site near to where I live) Saturday night between 20:00UT
and 21:30UT. In that time I saw around 15 meteors. The moon was
getting quite high up at 21:30UT, so I came home. When I got back, the
sky completely clouded over!

Decided to have a look out on Sunday night and rates were a lot
higher. I was looking and listening to the meteors from:
http://www.tvcomm.pwp.blueyonder.co....o_Pages/Radio/ web
pages, and around 20:40UT the sky had cleared completely. I stayed out
til 22:40UT and saw around 64 Geminids. They were all between mag. +2
and -1. The majority were short, fast and faint (mag. +1). I did see a
few fireball type meteors, but they did not leave very big trails
behind. I had the audio from the above site playing in the background
while watching the display. About 20 seconds after seeing the meteor,
most of the time, I heard the 'ping' from the reflected radio signals.
I guess the delay was due to Internet delays? The moon was getting in
the way at around 22:40UT, and I had an early start for work Monday
morning so I called it a night. Looking at the 6 hour plots on the
radio detection site above, it seems quite a few more were about until
around 01:00UT. I do not know if they were any brighter or more
numerous, but I think the moon would have spoilt later observations.


Meteors are fairly 'local' events, I noticed that on occasion I record
what seem to be the same reflection as Andy, but most occur at
different times so are likely different meteors. Andy is over 300miles
south from me (Porstmouth I think). I saw 8 bright meteors and a few
faint ones from 20:00 to 22:00 last night, radio reflection activity
remained high throughout the night and into early morning. Most of the
'brightest' events were recorded after 3:00am.

ChrisH

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Hi Chaps,

My location is in fact Plymouth! Common mistake! Yes, the delay will be
caused by coding time and Internet delays. If I listen to myself I have
a delay of about 5-10 seconds, so if you connect through Telewest you'll
have less delay than anyone else.

Sadly the clouds just wouldn't budge here, so I couldn't see any of the
bu**ers!

Andy G7IZU.

Andy is over 300miles
south from me (Porstmouth I think).
ChrisH

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--
Andy Smith