Monday, December 27, 2010

Geminids 2010 report from SPACE


Geminids 2010 – SPACE observation report

The year ended with one of the best meteor showers of the year putting in an appearance. Two teams from SPACE headed to two separate locations- Jim Corbett National Park and Sakras observing site. Both teams successfully observed a spectacular shower. The report and images are listed below:











Report -

Geminids 2010 were predicted to yield a good ZHR of more than 100. Maxima - Dec 14th at 11h UT or 16:30 h IST ZHR (Zenith Hourly Rate) - around 120. The best time to watch the activity near the peak in India was on 13th December night/early morning on 14th after moonset. SPACE planned observation of Geminids 2010 from two locations:

Location 1 – Jim Corbett Park, Ramnagar, Uttrakhand (29°26'24"N   79°4'35"E)
Location 2 – SPACE observation site, Sakras, Haryana (27°51'13"N   76°58'21"E)

Location 1 Team
SPACE observation team
Sachin Bhamba, C B Devgun, Surender Solanki, Jaishree Soin

Location 2 Team
Astronomicans
Deepak Jose, Deepak Dogra, Ishant, Vikrant, Sneh, Rishabh


Location 1 Experiments/observations planned:
Naked eye observation of the meteor shower
Photography of the shower
Estimating limiting magnitude for project dark skies

Equipment
:
Canon 450D with 18mm f 3.5 lens
Canon 500D with 18mm f 3.5 lens
Nikon D80 with leica 16 mm fisheye lens
Nikon D80 with Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens

Images plus software to control the camera
GPS for time keeping and location

Naked eye observation team:
 Sachin Bahmba (SB), C B Devgun (CB), Surender Solanki (SS) and Jaishree Soin (JS)

Time of observation:
 13th Dec. 2010
20:30 IST – 23:00 UT

Observation was done in following time spans (M=Shower meteor, S= Sporadic)
Reports have been sent to International Meteor Organisation (IMO)

period  Time (UT)          M     S
period  2030-2045        12   2
period  2045-2100        18   1
period  2100-2115        12   5
period  2115-2130        10   2
period  2130-2145        15   2
period  2145-2200        20   0
period  2200-2205        25   0
period  2205-2210        30   1
period  2210-2220        20   0
period  2220-2230        19   0
period  2230-2235        35   2
period  2235-2240        45   4
period  2240-2250        18   0
period  2250-2255        40   4
period  2255-2300        25   3

Above readings have been taken out of the report sent by Team 1 to International Meteor Organisation (IMO), which can be accessed athttp://imo.net/live/geminids2010/ and at http://imo.net/live/geminids2010/obslist.html

Skies at the Location 1 were almost perfect having a limiting magnitude of almost 6. As the nearest city “Ramnagar” was 7 kms as the crow flies from the site in the jungle, skies were quite good except for the small amount of light pollution from the city in the south east.  Observers mainly looked into directions of Leo and Orion for most of the time during observations. The shower intensified in bursts during short intervals of 5 mins at 2235-2240 and 2250-2255 UT. In all 344 meteor belonging to the shower were seen and 26 sporadic ones were seen.

Photography of the shower:
 The shower was photographed for the same duration as that of the shower and around 10 frames got the Geminids meteors.
Images will be uploaded in SPACE blog at http://organisationspace.blogspot.com
and the repository of SPACE soon.

Report sent to IMO by SPACE team at Location 1: 
// Header section
night            2010-12-13/14
begin            2010-12-13 2030
end              2010-12-13 2300
observer         "chander, sachin, " "devgun, bahmba"
location         79 04 35 E, 29 26 24 N
site             "Jim corbett Tiger reserve" "India"
reporter         "chander.devgun@gmail.com"

// Shower section
shower  GEM 112 +33
shower  SPO

// Number section
//      Interval        RA      Dec     Teff    F       Lm         GEM     SPO
period  2030-2045       090     +00     0.200   1.00    5.50     C  12   C   2
period  2045-2100       090     +00     0.200   1.00    5.50     C  18   C   1
period  2100-2115       150     +10     0.250   1.00    5.50     C  12   C   5
period  2115-2130       150     +10     0.200   1.00    5.50     C  10   C   2
period  2130-2145       090     +00     0.200   1.00    5.00     C  15   C   2
period  2145-2200       090     +00     0.200   1.00    5.00     C  20   C   0
period  2200-2205       090     +00     0.080   1.00    5.00     C  25   C   0
period  2205-2210       090     +00     0.080   1.00    5.00     C  30   C   1
period  2210-2220       150     +10     0.150   1.00    5.50     C  20   C   0
period  2220-2230       090     +00     0.150   1.00    5.00     C  19   C   0
period  2230-2235       090     +00     0.080   1.00    5.00     C  35   C   2
period  2235-2240       090     +00     0.080   1.00    5.00     C  45   C   4
period  2240-2250       090     +00     0.150   1.00    5.00     C  18   C   0
period  2250-2255       090     +00     0.080   1.00    5.00     C  40   C   4
period  2255-2300       090     +00     0.080   1.00    5.00     C  25   C   3

// Magnitude section
//              Show    Interval     -6    -5    -4    -3    -2    -1    +0    +1    +2   +3    +4    +5    +6    +7    Tot
distribution    GEM     2030-2100   1.0   1.0   3.0   2.0   2.0   6.0  14.0   1.0    -     -     -     -     -     -   30.0
distribution    GEM     2100-2130   2.0   1.0   2.0   3.0   4.0   5.0   6.0   2.0  2.0   2.0     -     -     -     -   29.0
distribution    GEM     2130-2145     -   2.0     -     -     -     -  10.0     -   2.0  1.0     -     -     -     -   15.0
distribution    GEM     2145-2200   6.0     -     -   3.0     -     -   5.0     -   4.0  2.0     -     -     -     -   20.0
distribution    GEM     2200-2205   2.0     -   5.0   2.0   2.0   1.0   7.0   5.0  3.0     -   1.0     -     -     -   28.0
distribution    GEM     2210-2220     -   2.0   3.0     -   4.0     -   6.0   2.0   2.0  1.0     -     -     -     -   20.0
distribution    GEM     2220-2230     -     -   2.0   4.0   2.0     -   6.0   3.0     -    -     -     -     -     -   17.0
distribution    GEM     2230-2235   5.0   3.0   1.0   1.0     -     -  15.0     -   1.0  1.0     -     -     -     -   27.0
distribution    GEM     2235-2240   7.0   1.0   3.0     -   2.0     -  12.0     -     -    -     -     -     -     -   25.0
distribution    GEM     2240-2250   4.0     -     -   1.0     -     -   8.0   3.0   1.0    -     -     -     -     -   17.0
distribution    GEM     2250-2255     -   1.0   2.0   3.0   5.0   2.0  10.0   2.0   3.0  1.0   1.0     -     -     -   30.0
distribution    GEM     2255-2300   8.0     -     -   2.0   2.0     -   7.0     -     -  1.0   1.0     -     -     -   21.0

// Personal comments
SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators) team observed the geminids from Jim Corbett Tiger reserve, a dark sky site 270 kms away from New Delhi, india. Sachin Bahmba, Surender Solanki and Jaishree soin were other observers from the SPACE Observers
  
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Location 2 Experiments/observations planned:

Following is reported by Vikrant Narang

4 Astronomicans - Deepak Jose, Deepak Dogra, Ishant and Vikrant had gone to Sakars for Geminids observation. Rishabh and Sneh also kept joining the observers team during their session breaks.

Experiments and Photography:

Visual observation: Vikrant, Ishant - Logged 214 meteors (Geminids + Sporadic) in 2 hours.

Astrophotography: Deepak Dogra, Deepak Jose, VIkrant Narang, Ishant, Sneh, RIshabh

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