Results of the IMO Video Meteor Network - December 2005
=======================================================
Unfortunately, the unusually good weather of autumn did not continue until the
end of year. Still, an overall of twelve observers managed to gather more than
650 hours of observing time and 3000 meteors records with fiveteen meteor
camerasin December. I especially happy that we could welcome two new Italian
members of the camera network - Maurizio Eltri and Flavio Castellani. Both
operate Mintron cameras with c-mount lenses of short focal length.
Highlight of December were clearly the Geminids. Even though only the observers
in southern Europe could observe the maximum, skies cleared a few nights before
at many sites giving the observers the chance, to further increase their totals
for 2005. The results of the two Italian observers near Venezia are especially
remarkable. Enrico Stomeo managed to record almost 300 meteors in seven hours
of observing time under sub-optimal conditions (full moon, driftig cirrus
clouds) with his Mintron camera, and Maurizio Eltri secured another 140 meteors
within three hours. That underlines again the rule, that it's only the field
of view which counts during major meteor showers. Since bright meteors are
relatively more frequent then, the loss in limiting magnitude with shorter
focal lengths is more than compensated by the increasing field of view. In
addition, the moon light is only little harmful, since it only increased the
background brightness, whereas image-intensifed cameras become immediately
saturated.
Let's have a look at the overall statistics for 2005 now. Seventeen observers
from nine countries (2004: eleven observer from seven countries) contributed to
the camera network - nine of them in ten or more months. Especially in southern
Europe the network could be extended significantly. An overall of twentythree
different camery systems were used. With 356 observing nights (97.5% of
all nights), the record of 2003 (357 nights) could almost be reached. Also
with respect to the effective observing time, the almost 9500 hours of 2005
fall only little short of the 2003 result (9614 hours). More than 40000 meteor
records in one year is clearly the best result in the history of the network,
beating 2003 by more than 3500 meteors and increasing the outperforming the
result of the previous year by more than 60%. One has to remark, though, that
this increase is almost exclusively owe to one camera: 2005 was the first year,
where AVIS2 was operated all time with the powerful Phillips XX-1332 image
intensifier with 50 mm photo cathode. So, this camera alone contributed with
almost 15000 meteors more than a third of all 2005 meteor records.
The hourly average over all cameras was 4.3 meteors per hour, which is an
increase compared to 2002-2004 (between 3.4 and 4.0 meteors / hour). 2005
was the first year, where we could record more than a thousand meteors each
month. The increase in meteor numbers starting from July is obvious as every
year. However, since the Summer was quite rainy at many sites, where autumn
was better than usual, the focal point of the observations shifted towards
September and October.
Month Nights eff. Obs. Time Meteors Meteor/Hour
--------------------------------------------------
January 30 957.1 2756 2.9
February 26 542.1 1265 2.3
March 31 759.1 1438 1.9
April 29 808.0 1664 2.1
May 30 600.2 1526 2.5
June 29 458.6 1260 2.7
July 29 537.0 2736 5.1
August 31 820.0 6048 7.4
September 30 1159.0 5741 5.0
October 31 1543.6 9636 6.2
November 30 742.9 3729 5.0
December 30 661.0 3094 4.7
--------------------------------------------------
Overall 356 9486.5 40740 4.3
Also in 2005, two network members managed to observe in more than 200 nights.
Joerg Strunk secured 227 nights, and Sirko Molau clearly outperformed the
previously best result of 233 nights. He recorded meteors in 261 nights, which
is more than 70% of all nights and another indicator for an observer-friendly
year. As in the previous year, Javor Kac, Ilkka Yrjola and Stane Slavec secured
between 130 and 160 nights, and Orland Benitez-Sanchez also observed in more
than a hundred nights.
Please note, that the first two observers in the following table operated two
resp. three cameras in parallel, which has an impact on their effective
observing time and meteor count.
Observer Nights eff. Obs. Time Meteors Meteor/Hour
---------------------------------------------------
S. Molau 261 2304.4 18713 8.1
J. Strunk 227 2180.0 7624 3.5
J. Kac 163 1176.4 1993 1.7
I. Yrjola 143 820.6 3169 3.9
S. Slavec 132 676.9 1496 2.2
O. Benitez-S. 112 649.8 678 1.0
S. Evans 91 662.8 2415 3.6
S. Ueberschaer 79 398.2 1013 2.5
D. Koschny 62 324.3 1197 3.7
E. Stomeo 19 63.6 668 10.5
R. Stork 13 128.6 1091 8.5
U. Sperberg 11 88.9 360 4.0
F. Castellani 10 102.1 153 1.5
M. Eltri 2 7.4 262 35.4
Other 2 4.6 61 13.3
---------------------------------------------------
By now, all data are checked for consistency and inserted into the video meteor
database. In a few days, the position data of more than 183.000 meteors in
PosDat format will be available to all interested observers at www.metrec.org.
At this point, I would like to thank all contributing observers and wish them
a successful new observing year.
1. Observers
============
Code Name Place Camera FOV LM Nights Time Meteors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR Benitez-S. Las Palmas TIMES5 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 13 51.7 h 82
CASFL Castellani Monte Baldo BMH1 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 10 102.1 h 153
ELTMA Eltri Venezia MET38 (0.8/3.8) 80 dg 3 mag 1 3.0 h 138
EVAST Evans Moreton RF1 (0.8/12) 25 dg 5 mag 8 68.1 h 271
KACJA Kac Kostanjevec METKA (0.8/8) 42 dg 2 mag 14 104.1 h 167
KOSDE Koschny Noordwijkerh. ICC3 (0.85/25) 25 dg 6 mag 3 21.0 h 39
MOLSI Molau Seysdorf AVIS2 (1.4/50) 60 dg 6 mag 12 39.0 h 636
MINCAM1 (0.8/6) 50 dg 3 mag 18 65.6 h 288
AKM2 (0.85/25) 32 dg 5 mag 1 5.8 h 81
SLAST Slavec Ljubljana KAYAK1 (1.8/28) 50 dg 4 mag 7 47.1 h 113
SPEUL Sperberg Salzwedel AKM1 (0.85/25) 32 dg 6 mag 1 0.9 h 2
STOEN Stomeo Scorze MIN38 (0.8/3.8) 80 dg 3 mag 6 34.9 h 466
STORO Stork Ondrejov OND1 (1.4/50) 50 dg 6 mag 3 28.1 h 686
STRJO Strunk Leopoldshoehe MINCAM2 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 4 29.0 h 90
MINCAM3 (0.8/8) 42 dg 4 mag 2 19.5 h 90
YRJIL Yrjola Kuusankoski FINEXCAM (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 10 69.2 h 478
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 30 661.0 h 3094
2. Observing Times (h)
======================
Dec 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - 2.6 0.9 - 1.7 2.0 - - 2.9 6.8 4.6 8.7 10.0 2.9 3.3
CASFL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ELTMA - - - - - - - - - - - - 3.0 - -
EVAST - - - - - - - - - 11.7 4.2 - - - -
KACJA - 3.8 5.4 - - - 13.1 5.7 - 7.5 13.5 - - - -
KOSDE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MOLSI - - 2.3 2.7 4.8 1.4 0.2 - 4.6 - 12.6 2.6 0.7 - -
- 0.8 3.0 3.8 3.8 1.3 1.0 1.1 4.4 12.4 12.9 2.3 0.2 0.2 -
- - - - - - - - - 5.8 - - - - -
SLAST - - - - - - - - 6.5 6.3 9.1 - - - -
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STOEN 5.9 - - - - - 4.5 - - 7.1 - - 7.3 - -
STRJO 13.4 2.2 4.7 - - - - - 8.7 - - - - - -
13.4 - - - - - - - 6.1 - - - - - -
YRJIL - 1.9 14.3 2.8 - - - 9.5 - - - - 4.6 - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 32.7 11.3 30.6 9.3 10.3 4.7 18.8 16.3 33.2 57.6 56.9 13.6 25.8 3.1 3.3
Dec 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 3.1 - - - - - - 2.2 - - - - - - - -
CASFL - - - 7.7 12.0 12.0 12.4 12.0 9.0 12.0 - 7.5 - 12.0 5.5 -
ELTMA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST 11.2 13.0 - 3.2 - - - 8.8 - - - 7.2 - - 8.8 -
KACJA 6.3 5.2 13.5 5.7 - 12.4 4.8 - 1.7 - - - - - 5.5 -
KOSDE - - - - - - - - 1.5 - 7.7 - 11.8 - - -
MOLSI - 0.7 - - - - - - - - 2.3 - - - 4.1 -
- 1.2 - - - - - - - 0.8 3.4 - - 9.0 4.0 -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SLAST - - 10.6 - 3.3 9.7 - - - - - - - - 1.6 -
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0.9 -
STOEN - - 7.7 - - - - - - - - - - - 2.4 -
STRJO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
YRJIL - - - 0.8 6.6 11.2 12.2 - - - - - 5.3 - - -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 20.6 20.1 31.8 17.4 21.9 45.3 29.4 23.0 12.2 12.8 13.4 14.7 17.1 21.0 32.8 -
3. Results (Meteors)
====================
Dec 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - 2 1 - 3 3 - - 3 17 4 13 23 3 4
CASFL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ELTMA - - - - - - - - - - - - 138 - -
EVAST - - - - - - - - - 63 26 - - - -
KACJA - 1 15 - - - 21 3 - 21 36 - - - -
KOSDE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MOLSI - - 20 12 58 14 4 - 170 - 293 15 3 - -
- 1 12 1 9 4 3 2 25 68 116 12 1 1 -
- - - - - - - - - 81 - - - - -
SLAST - - - - - - - - 13 31 24 - - - -
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STOEN 31 - - - - - 14 - - 61 - - 294 - -
STRJO 35 8 13 - - - - - 34 - - - - - -
55 - - - - - - - 35 - - - - - -
YRJIL - 9 94 10 - - - 63 - - - - 110 - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 121 21 155 23 70 21 42 68 280 342 499 40 569 4 4
Dec 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 3 - - - - - - 3 - - - - - - - -
CASFL - - - 13 19 21 26 24 7 6 - 10 - 17 10 -
ELTMA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST 35 42 - 9 - - - 45 - - - 23 - - 28 -
KACJA 14 6 24 3 - 15 3 - 1 - - - - - 4 -
KOSDE - - - - - - - - 3 - 10 - 26 - - -
MOLSI - 5 - - - - - - - - 15 - - - 27 -
- 5 - - - - - - - 4 8 - - 10 6 -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SLAST - - 23 - 6 13 - - - - - - - - 3 -
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 -
STOEN - - 59 - - - - - - - - - - - 7 -
STRJO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
YRJIL - - - 1 38 76 65 - - - - - 12 - - -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 52 58 106 26 63 125 94 72 11 10 33 33 38 27 87 -
Sirko Molau, 2006/01/14