Greetings all,
Well, I just woke up from what proved to be one of the most bizarre, surreal, unlikely, and totally amazing nights in my recent (or forever, really) meteor watching memory! It was a tale of sky high hopes, abject disappointment, divine intervention, insane perseverance and finally, ended up as one of the top ten meteor nights ever in my 44 years of this incredible hobby!!
After a day of gorgeous blue skies, I ventured down to Matanzas Inlet (MI) with only a few cirrus clouds way off in the west. By night fall, the clouds became more evident and soon took over almost the entire sky. I was heartsick. While waiting, I met a couple of folks who stopped by to check out the meteor shower. They didn’t stay, but were planning to get back with us and join the ACAC!
After about 9:00 p.m., the skies cleared a bit and I was joined by several ACAC members for a brief period – Bill Spearow, Rod Paul, Julie Taylor and her daughter Claire, Dan and Sally Marks, ACAC good friend Leslie Goode from the SJC Library Bookmobile and Jeff Wellman one of our members from Jacksonville all came out with hopes to view.
However, every time it began to clear off, it clouded back over on us again. We did see a few nice GEMs through and around the clouds, but after a while, it appeared to be hopeless for fully clearing, so most folks left. Only Jeff and I remained, hanging in there until about 11:30 when it became totally overcast, so we decided to pack it in and take our crushed dreams home.
Just as I was about to pull out of the parking lot, a car pulled up. It turned out to be ACAC good friend Sara Clifton, who came out to join us after attending the Jacksonville Icemen hockey game up in Jax. I apologized to Sara saying we had given it a shot, but it looked hopeless and we were packing it up.
Very wisely as it turned out, Sara brushed aside my dire forecasts of continued clouds and hung in there after I left. Not long after I got home, I got a text from Lyle Guzman who was working the midnight shift at his job, telling me he had seen several nice GEMs and it was mostly clear where he was in the Molasses Junction area (several miles west of St. Augustine).
About that same time, I got a text from Sara who told me she had seen 85 meteors down at Matanzas Inlet in just the short time since I had left her and it was mostly clear and I should consider returning!! I jumped in the car immediately, and hauled butt back down to MI, setting a new land speed record getting there, too… ;o).
Upon my re-arrival at MI just before 1:15 a.m., I was blown away – the skies were spectacular and I saw over ten GEMs in just the three minutes it took me to get my chaise lounge set up!! I thanked Sara profusely and we settled back to see one of the most astounding displays of meteors I’ve witnessed since the 2001 and 2002 Leonid storms!
All told, in the first 60 minutes between 1:15 and 2:15 a.m. this morning, I counted 133 GEMs and 16 non-Geminids in four 15-minutes counting periods. GEMs were falling in clumps of four and five in quick succession, many of them in negative magnitudes. I had a -5 GEM fireball hardly five minutes into the watch and that was followed by several more GEM fireballs shooting around the sky in all directions. It was UNREAL!
Soon after my arrival, another car pulled into the lot and Sara and I met brand new ACAC friend Ashley Swain who set her alarm to come out after midnight to join us and she was VERY well rewarded for her wise decision!
The show continued unabated into my second hour (2:15 to 3:15 a.m.) with 122 more Gems counted and a few more GEM fireballs seen to boot. We had a stunning -6 GEM fireball fall into the eastern horizon, lighting up the sky in that direction with a gorgeous blue-green glow, followed several minutes later by a golden yellow, -4 GEM fireball, falling into and lighting up the western horizon! It was insane and hard to keep up with everything that was going on!
Sara topped the night by counting a total of 504 meteors between 11:30 p.m. and 3:15 a.m. I came in second with 327 total meteors between 1:15 a.m. and 3:45 a.m. plus about 50 more various casually seen meteors from earlier in the evening. I think Ashley was too stunned by it all to count, but she sure did enjoy the show! We must have had easily upwards to or even over 30 GEMs in negative magnitudes, with one -6, 2 -5s, several more -4s and a bunch of -3s. We must have seen at least ten instances of perfectly simultaneous pairs of GEMs and even a few sets of three!!!
Finally, after 3:30, the clouds began to return and the clear skies deteriorated, so the ladies left and I hung in there for another 45 minutes before finally packing it in, but not before seeing two more GEM fireballs and a bunch more bright ones!
I shall forever be indebted to Lyle and Sara for clueing me into seeing one of the most amazing events in many a year!
I am finally getting caught enough to report on the detailed observational results from the ACAC 2017 Geminid Meteor Shower maximum observations. A big thanks to Sara Clifton and Lyle Guzman for turning max night disappointment into amazing success! Here are my results:
Observed for radiants:
GEM: Geminids
ANT: Anthelions
MON: December Monocerotids
HYD: sigma Hydrids
DLM: December Leonis Minorids
DAD: December alpha Draconids
Date: Dec., 11/12, 2017. Observer: Paul Jones, Location: north bank of Matanzas Inlet, Florida, 15 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida, Lat: 29.75 N, Long: 81.24W, LM: 6.5, sky conditions: clear, Facing: SE.
1200 – 1000 EST (0500 – 0600 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
29 GEM: 0(1), +1(1), +2(5), +3(10), +4(9), +5(3)
1 MON: +4(1)
1 ANT: +2(1)
1 HYD: +3(1)
8 SPO: +2(2), +3(2), +4(3), +5(1)
40 total meteors
Only the one ANT left a visible train, most common colors were gold and yellow in the brighter GEMs.
0100 – 0200 EST (0600 – 0700 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
18 GEM: -1(1), +2(4), +3(6), +4(4), +5(3)
1 MON: +4(1)
1 HYD: +3(1)
1 DLM: +4(1)
6 SPO: +1(2), +3(2), +4(1), +5(1)
27 total meteors
Only the -1 GEM left a visible train, most common colors were blue and yellow in the brighter GEMs.
Date: Dec 12/13, 2017. Observer: Paul Jones, Location: north bank of Matanzas Inlet, Florida, 15 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida, Lat: 29.75 N, Long: 81.24W, LM: 6.8, sky conditions: clear, Facing: SE.
1200 – 0100 EST (0500 – 0600 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
53 GEM: -1(1), 0(5), +1(8), +2(15), +3(12), +4(9), +5(3)
2 ANT: +2(1), +3(1)
2 MON: +3(2)
1 HYD: +2(1)
1 DLM: +3(1)
9 SPO: +1(1), +2(1), +3(3), +4(2), +5(2)
68 total meteors
4 of the 53 GEMs, and 3 SPOs left visible trains, most common colors were blue and yellow in the brighter GEMs and SPOs.
0100 – 0200 EST (0600 – 0700 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
46 GEM: -1(2), 0(2), +1(6), +2(10), +3(13), +4(9), +5(4)
1 ANT: +2(1)
2 MON: +2(1), +3(1)
2 HYD: +2(1), +4(1)
1 DLM: +1(1)
1 DAD: +3(1)
10 SPO: +1(1), +2(2), +3(3), +4(2), +5(2)
63 total meteors
3 of the 46 GEMs, and 3 SPOs left visible trains, most common colors were blue and yellow in the brighter GEMs and SPOs.
0200 – 0300 EST (0700 – 0800 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
57 GEM: -1(3), 0(3), +1(7), +2(11), +3(17), +4(12), +5(4)
1 ANT: +2(1)
2 HYD: +2(1), +3(1)
2 DLM: +1(1), +2(1)
1 DAD: +3(1)
11 SPO: 0(1), +1(1), +2(1), +3(5), +4(2), +5(1)
74 total meteors
4 of the 57 GEMs, 1 DLM and 3 SPOs left visible trains, most common colors were blue and yellow in the brighter GEMs and SPOs.
Date: Dec., 13/14, 2017. Observer: Paul Jones, Location: north bank of Matanzas Inlet, Florida, 15 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida, Lat: 29.75 N, Long: 81.24W, LM: 6.5, sky conditions: clear, Facing: South.
0115 – 0215 EST (0615 – 0715 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
133 GEM: -5(2), -4(2), -3(5), -2(6), -1(9), 0(11), +1(16), +2(24), +3(32), +4(18), +5(8)
1 ANT: +3(1)
2 DLM: +2(2)
2 HYD: +3(1), +4(1)
1 DAD: +1(1)
1 MON: +3(1)
9 SPO: +1(1), +2(2), +3(3), +4(3)
149 total meteors
15 minute subsets in UT (GEMs):
0615 – 0630: 28 GEMS
0630 – 0645: 32 GEMs
0645 – 0700: 38 GEMs
0700 – 0715: 35 GEMs
31 of the 133 GEMs left visible trains, most common colors were blue, blue/green, gold and yellow in the brighter GEMs.
0215 – 0315 EST (0715 – 0815 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
123 GEM: -6(1), -4(3), -3(4), -2(7), -1(6), 0(10), +1(13), +2(23), +3(31), +4(20), +5(5)
1 ANT: +3(1)
2 DLM: +2(2)
3 HYD: +2(1), +3(1), +4(1)
2 DAD: +1(1), +3(1)
1 MON: +3(1)
10 SPO: +1(1), +2(2), +3(4), +4(3)
142 total meteors
15 minute subsets in UT (GEMs):
0715 – 0730: 29 GEMS
0730 – 0745: 33 GEMs
0745 – 0800: 33 GEMs
0800 – 0815: 28 GEMs
29 of the 123 GEMs left visible trains, most common colors were blue, blue/green, gold and yellow in the brighter GEMs.
0315 – 0345 EST (0815 – 0845 UT), Teff: .5 hour, 30% cirrus clouds, no breaks
33 GEM: -4(2), -3(1), -2(3), -1(2), 0(1), +1(5), +2(6), +3(8), +4(5)
1 HYD: +2(1)
4 SPO: +1(1), +2(1), +3(1), +4(1)
38 total meteors
15 minute subsets in UT (GEMs):
0815 – 0830: 19 GEMs
0830 – 0845: 14 GEMs
6 of the 33 GEMs, left visible trains, most common colors were blue, blue/green, gold and yellow in the brighter GEMs
