chipdatajeffb
Geminids 2010
Edit: I fixed some typos and added a dashed white line indicating the official numbers (visual) from the International Meteor Organization (IMO).
OK, I think this is the final chart, time-adjusted. John Bozeman and Mark Watson (3RF Volunteers) counted Geminid meteors independently for 4 different 15-minute periods at Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus (CSAC), a Bortle Class 2 dark-sky site on the plains of Texas.
Jeff Barton counted radar pings from the (former) NAVSPASUR array near Olney, about 77 miles line of site from CSAC, using Spaceweather dot com's Internet radio link courtesy of Dr. Tony Phillips and Stan Nelson. I counted pings within 58 separate 3-minute recordings and applied a 20% error estimate due to static and the presence of sporadic and meteors from other showers.
These meteors are dust particles left in orbit around the Sun in the wake of asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
Note 1: The gap in the chart is due to 'sleep time' for the observers.
Note 2: There was one visual observation during the radar gap, perhaps indicating a broader first peak.
Note 3: There were clearly two different peaks.
Note 4: Part of the difference between visual and radar counts is due to the fact that the radar beam is fan-shaped, crossing Texas along latitude 33/34 N, so some visual meteors may not have passed through the beam at all.
Geminids 2010
Edit: I fixed some typos and added a dashed white line indicating the official numbers (visual) from the International Meteor Organization (IMO).
OK, I think this is the final chart, time-adjusted. John Bozeman and Mark Watson (3RF Volunteers) counted Geminid meteors independently for 4 different 15-minute periods at Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus (CSAC), a Bortle Class 2 dark-sky site on the plains of Texas.
Jeff Barton counted radar pings from the (former) NAVSPASUR array near Olney, about 77 miles line of site from CSAC, using Spaceweather dot com's Internet radio link courtesy of Dr. Tony Phillips and Stan Nelson. I counted pings within 58 separate 3-minute recordings and applied a 20% error estimate due to static and the presence of sporadic and meteors from other showers.
These meteors are dust particles left in orbit around the Sun in the wake of asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
Note 1: The gap in the chart is due to 'sleep time' for the observers.
Note 2: There was one visual observation during the radar gap, perhaps indicating a broader first peak.
Note 3: There were clearly two different peaks.
Note 4: Part of the difference between visual and radar counts is due to the fact that the radar beam is fan-shaped, crossing Texas along latitude 33/34 N, so some visual meteors may not have passed through the beam at all.