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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum     4   18   25  152  310  146   23   46   32    4    -    4    6   50   33   30

Sirko Molau, 2005/01/13