Results of the IMO Video Meteor Network - December 2004
=======================================================
At most observing sites, December started as November had quit - foggy and
misty. Until mid-December, high pressure systems over central Europe caused
perfect skies and excellent transparency in the mountains above the fog layer,
but wet and cold weather below. The Geminid maximum could in most cases only
be observed by those who left their observing sites and went into the
mountains. They were rewarded by meteoric fireworks that went on all night
long.
With December 2004, a year ends that could not compare with the record
breaking year before. According to the preliminary overview, 11 observers
from 7 countries were participating in the IMO video network, seven of
which being active in 10 months or more. An overall of 21 different camera
systems (15 of them with image intensifier) were in operation.
The observers obtained meteor records in 351 observing nights, i.e. in 96% of
all nights. That's six nights less than in 2003, but still 10 nights more
than in 2002. The overall effective observing times was little above 6000
hours, which is slightly less that in 2001 and 2002, but falls more than a
third short of the 2003 result. This number proves that the weather was
clearly worse than in the year before. Only thanks to the good distribution
of the observers and thanks to automated camera systems that exploit even
short cloud gaps, we managed to get that many observing nights. Since the
average number of meteors per hours remained constant at 4, it is no wonder
that the overall number of meteors records decreased significantly, too.
Wereas we secured about 35000 meteors records in 2002 and 2003, it was "only"
about 25000 records in 2004.
Month # Observing Eff. Observing # Meteors Met. / Hour
Nights Time [h]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 29 431.8 780 1.8
February 28 444.3 662 1.5
March 29 618.7 776 1.3
April 30 603.5 775 1.3
May 30 462.9 601 1.3
June 27 321.1 620 1.9
July 30 642.3 2085 3.2
August 30 809.6 5150 6.4
September 28 854.2 3905 4.6
October 31 844.9 4632 5.5
November 29 616.4 2180 3.5
December 30 680.4 2631 3.9
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Overall 351 6074.6 24797 4.1
Among the individual observers, Joerg Strunk was most successful in 2004. He
secured an overall of 233 observing nights, exactly as many nights as the best
observer in 2003. He is followed by Sirko Molau with 215 nights, and a trio
made of Stane Slavec, Ilkka Yrjola and Javor Kac with about 130 nights each.
With respect to the effective observing time given in the next table it has
to be noted, that the first two observers often operated two video systems in
parallel.
Observer # Observing Eff. Observing # Meteors Met. / Hour
Nights Time [h]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joerg Strunk 233 1579.8 5200 3.3
Sirko Molau 215 1864.5 8917 4.8
Stane Slavec 133 738.4 2391 3.2
Ilkka Yrjola 128 774.7 2193 2.8
Javor Kac 125 819.5 1436 1.8
Stefan Ueberschaer 81 436.0 623 1.4
Stephen Evans 77 444.5 1340 3.0
Orlando Benitez-Sanchez 54 409.5 736 1.8
Detlef Koschny 25 146.8 1051 7.2
Rosta Stork 6 96.9 853 8.8
Juergen Rendtel 2 19.5 57 2.9
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In a few weeks, when the observations are checked for consistency and entered
into the database, all data will be published in the internet at www.metrec.org.
Meanwhile, I would like to thanks the many diligent observers and wish all
of us a successful new year with many clear nights and meteors.
1. Observers
============
Code Name Place Camera FOV LM Nights Time Meteors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR Benitez-S. Las Palmas TIMES5 (0.8/6) 50 dg 3 mag 14 127.4 h 60
KACJA Kac Kostanjevec METKA (0.8/8) 42 dg 2 mag 10 90.1 h 315
MOLSI Molau Seysdorf AVIS2 (1.4/50) 60 dg 6 mag 3 23.2 h 365
MINCAM1 (1.4/12) 35 dg 4 mag 13 60.9 h 112
SLAST Slavec Ljubljana KAYAK1 (1.8/28) 50 dg 4 mag 9 52.4 h 168
STORO Stork Churanov OND1 (1.4/50) 22 dg 7 mag 1 12.5 h 161
OND2 (2.8/16) 80 dg 5 mag 1 12.4 h 191
STRJO Strunk Leopoldshoehe MINCAM2 (0.8/8) 42 dg 4 mag 18 94.3 h 306
MINCAM3 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 9 83.2 h 485
UEBST Ueberschaer Aachen MIMO (0.95/25) 13 dg 4 mag 9 64.2 h 109
YRJIL Yrjola Kuusankoski FINEXCAM (0.8/6) 50 dg 3 mag 7 59.8 h 359
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 30 680.4 h 2631
2. Observing Times (h)
======================
Dec 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - 11.6 10.0 10.0 - 5.9 5.9 12.2 11.5 - 11.1 0.5 - -
KACJA - - 11.5 - - - - - - - 9.6 - 8.1 - -
MOLSI - - - - - - - - 8.2 - - - - - -
3.8 0.8 - - - - - - 13.9 - - - - - -
SLAST - - 2.1 - - - - - - - 9.4 - - - -
STORO - - - - - - - - - - - - 12.5 - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - 12.4 - -
STRJO - 1.4 1.0 0.2 - - 1.0 5.9 13.4 10.9 - - - 10.9 2.9
- 0.5 - 1.2 - - - 5.5 13.4 12.0 - - - 13.6 -
UEBST - 1.8 - 9.5 - 5.6 - 5.7 14.4 - - - 6.1 5.8 -
YRJIL - - 11.9 - - - - - - - 1.4 14.4 1.0 - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 3.8 4.5 38.1 20.9 10.0 5.6 6.9 23.0 75.5 34.4 20.4 25.5 40.6 30.3 2.9
Dec 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - 9.5 - - - - - 12.4 - - - - 9.0 5.5 - 12.3
KACJA - - 12.0 - 8.1 6.1 6.1 6.1 - - - - - 11.5 11.0 -
MOLSI - - - - 9.1 - - - - - - - - - 5.9 -
4.9 - - 8.5 14.0 1.7 2.4 2.7 1.9 1.0 - - 0.3 - 5.0 -
SLAST - - - - 7.0 7.6 5.0 6.4 - - - - - 6.6 2.5 5.8
STORO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STRJO - 2.8 0.5 13.7 13.7 9.9 - - - 0.7 - 1.0 0.2 4.2 - -
- - - 13.6 13.7 9.7 - - - - - - - - - -
UEBST - - - 7.9 7.4 - - - - - - - - - - -
YRJIL - - - - - 9.2 - - 11.8 - - - - - - 10.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 4.9 12.3 12.5 43.7 73.0 44.2 13.5 27.6 13.7 1.7 - 1.0 9.5 27.8 24.4 28.2
3. Results (Meteors)
====================
Dec 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - 2 3 4 - 3 4 4 8 - 7 1 - -
KACJA - - 19 - - - - - - - 40 - 147 - -
MOLSI - - - - - - - - 231 - - - - - -
1 1 - - - - - - 25 - - - - - -
SLAST - - 1 - - - - - - - 28 - - - -
STORO - - - - - - - - - - - - 161 - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - 191 - -
STRJO - 5 5 1 - - 4 13 48 46 - - - 54 8
- 1 - 7 - - - 13 93 87 - - - 126 -
UEBST - 2 - 10 - 3 - 11 19 - - - 22 14 -
YRJIL - - 38 - - - - - - - 5 225 7 - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 1 9 65 21 4 3 7 41 420 141 73 232 529 194 8
Dec 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - 5 - - - - - 6 - - - - 3 1 - 9
KACJA - - 23 - 17 12 6 13 - - - - - 22 16 -
MOLSI - - - - 125 - - - - - - - - - 9 -
4 - - 32 33 2 2 1 5 1 - - 2 - 3 -
SLAST - - - - 34 35 15 26 - - - - - 17 5 7
STORO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STRJO - 13 2 41 28 20 - - - 3 - 4 1 10 - -
- - - 66 58 34 - - - - - - - - - -
UEBST - - - 13 15 - - - - - - - - - - -
YRJIL - - - - - 43 - - 27 - - - - - - 14
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Sum 4 18 25 152 310 146 23 46 32 4 - 4 6 50 33 30
Sirko Molau, 2005/01/13