Geminid Meteor Shower Maximum - Dec 13th/14th

[martinastro]

Time to get a thread started!. The Geminids in my opinion are the best meteor shower of the year with maximum this year taking place on Dec 13th/14th, that's Mon night/Tues morning. The ZHR is 120 meteors per hour and the Moon sets after midnight so the predawn hours will be dark and perfect for meteor watching - weather permitting. This shower is worth watching for it's exceptional fireballs. I hope to be observing the maximum and perhaps even get a watch in tonight. Best of luck everyone. Please post your Geminid images and chat/reports on this thread.

[Big Dipper]

Well I've read about several sightings of bright fireballs on various forums, including Richard's report here from a few nights back, all of which I've managed to miss. There was also this widely reported sighting in the UK's national press which also eluded me! 

Alas although I had some clearish skies to begin with yesterday (Monday) evening, the show was over by around 7pm as the predicted cloud cover moved in (and is still here as I type this)!

BTW while waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa earlier on, I switched on a national radio station just in time to hear the presenter inform his listeners that it was the peak of the 2010 Geminids but that you would need a telescope to see them!

Not a dedicated meteor observer, methinks! Hope others here fared better.

[brianb]

the show was over by around 7pm as the predicted cloud cover moved in

Same here.

Intermittent cloud on Sunday night (Dec 12/13) showed a few Geminids but none of the ones I saw was exceptionally bright, in fact most were near the limit of vision.

[paulster78]

Sorry to hear you had cloud guys cause it really was an impressive show.  Cloud finally broke with me around 00:30 this morning to provide a few clear slots at first then quite good skies overhead.  From this until 04:00 i saw 72 Geminids but mist and fog rolled in and that was that.  Hopped in the car and drove out to a higher location and was amazed to get crystal clear skies, observed 152 more from 04:50-06:30 and probably missed quite a few more taking images at the same time. One notable fireball that lit up the southern sky at around 05:10 leaving a nice ion train, brilliant session but very cold with toes and fingers suffering the most.

There always seemed to be a plane in the frame

[martinastro]

Well done Paul, these are great shots from the high ground of Pigeon top, what a view you had and I'm sure it was freezing up there. Love the images showing the Geminids and the car, looks like you had a fabulous time. Thanks for the late night text message, I ran out of credit so couldn't respond.

I was mosttly clouded out but had clear spells for a while yet I still saw 117 Geminids within a short period of time. I would say that based on these rates this was the best Geminid meteor shower I have ever seen to date!. Observed a stunning fireball at 02.14 UT in the NE, easily mag -8.0 and casting obvious moving shadows on the ground. It flared with silvery-blue light like a supernova with a body sporting a vivid orange colour, it left a long 5 sec orange ion train - an absolute beauty. Caught one faint Geminid on camera. Not bad at all considering I had cloud for most of the night.

[Paul]

Well the clouds came over yesterday (Mon) evening and that was that before bedtime, however I awoke at about 0645 just as the dawn was beginning to make itself known and saw 5 Geminids over the course of a few mins including one spectacuarly bright one - est mag -2 - certainly much brighter than Capella - this ran from close to the radiant most of the way to Procyon moving quite slowly so I guess that was not far off coming straight at me. Didn't have time to get any pics - well done Paul for getting your shots!

[rjgjr]

Great images Paul, beautiful view from your location. Thanks for the reports from everyone. The one Geminid in #2 shown bright enough to be seen through the cloud bank, amazing. No luck here, rain at night for the past 9 days I think, even the upcoming eclipse suppose to be rained out!!

[paulster78]

Thanks a lot Martin, Paul and Richard.    That was a great count Martin for your limited viewing time, fireball sounds incredible.  Well done on catching some this morning Paul. Hope the weather picks up for you Richard 

[martinastro]

Paul, you should send in your visual report, count and images to Spaceweather.com 

[martinastro]

Caught this faint Geminid last night, 2nd image is a deep crop...

[Big Dipper]

Paul(ster) some smashing shots there. You're dedication & efforts in getting to an ideal location certainly paid dividends for you.

[paulster78]

Sent to SpaceWeather Martin Thanks.  Martin great catch there going through Orion.  Cheers Andy 

[martinastro]

Cheers Paul 

Hopefully Dr. Tony Philips will use the report and images. 

[markt]

Great reports and pictures guys!  Always good to see and read.  I have to confess to only a being a fairweather summer meteor shower chap - work and cold weather at this time of year means i'm tucked up in bed when the Geminids happen...

[DaveH64]

Great reports and pics Paul and Martin disappointed i couldn't get out last night. Good Job.