2013 Geminids

[David Smith]

Was anyone else looking forward to the Geminids meteor shower? I really enjoy meteor watching, although I tend to reserve it for the major showers and the Geminids is probably the best of them. This year is due to be affected by the waxing gibbous moon but would still be worth a look in the early hours of Saturday. I have observed this shower in bright moon light before and still seen a good number of meteors. They tend to be slower moving than meteors from other showers but there are also a higher number of bright meteors and hence you can still get a good count with a bright moon in the sky.

Alas the weather looks like it will intervene again for me and I will be lucky if I see anything on the peak night of 13th / 14th or any other time over the next 10 days. This autumn / winter season has been a complete loss for me this year with my last obs on the 27th October! Hopefully early 2014 will be kinder.

Maybe I should look at radio detection.........

If you get to see any let me know and I will have to observe by proxy.

[mjpfc]

If the weather is good to me I will be out there as usual with my hat and flask.

Unfortunately we have had two reasonably clear nights now and used up our december allocation

so I am fingers crossed, but not getting my hopes up.

Mick

[JB80]

Same here, the weather isn't looking great at the moment but then again they change it hourly so who knows.

I'll play it by ear and hopefully I can get out.

[andrew63]

They are on the way - along with the clouds !

Astronomy Picture of the Day

andrew

[JB80]

I feel slightly bad for not going out last night.

[hobbes22]

Completely clouded over here.

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[David Smith]

The Met Office / BBC are currently teasing me with the threat of clear skies tonight but I refuse to be drawn in only to be disappointed later.

[Bigdaddyjeff]

I fear the only shower I will see will involve soap on a rope and a loofah

[Davey-T]

Supposed to clear later in the night here according to BBC weather but we all know what they mean by clear

Dave

[yesteryeargames]

Looks clear here what time should I start looking ? and weather permitting what hour is likely to be the best ?

[mjpfc]

It looks like it will clear sometime between 22:00  and midnight for most of us if the BBC cloud forecast is to be believed.

The shower will start showing itself as soon as Gemini has, but usually the best of the thing is from midnight onwards.

Midnight will also see the moon further out of the way and behind me (I always face east) and a few more hours will get

it down out of the way behind the houses to the west and SW of me.

Good luck everyone, hope tonight's a goodun

Mick

[goodricke1]

Just been out for half an hour in clear skies with bright moon and saw... zero meteors.

[Ben Smith]

Just been out for half an hour in clear skies with bright moon and saw... zero meteors.

Think we're best waiting until the moon sets and when Gemini is higher in the sky

[Bart]

Just saw a nice bright one heading SW from Gemini. Nice and bright.

To my eternal shame I forgot about them!!!

Then again, I'm forgiving myself as the weather has been so poor lately I'd given up on the astro thing.....

I know, I'll get my coat...

Barry

[happy-kat]

Seen 8, 5 of which made me say wow out loud. Jolly cold in now.

[andrew63]

Just saw my first Geminid -  nice and bright heading south by orion. 

andrew

[Andrew*]

I was looking for about 20 minutes and saw 5, so not too bad.

[Davey-T]

Seen two so far both of which managed to avoid having their picture taken now got a bank of cloud.

Dave

[Bart]

Just got another few, two right after each other and one very bright that changed colour and even broke up a little. Nice

Barry

[Third rock]

Saw around 15 up to now. Very impressed its my first shower siting

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[goodricke1]

Saw maybe 10 in half an hour - quite short and snappy compared to your average sporadic, cloud rolled in now

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Captured 1 only on cam  

nice capture from me auto detection modded webcam.

[Lorne]

On the way home from my local I spotted 1 bright one, decided to sit out in the garden with a mug of coffee and caught another 7 between 12.15 and 12.45 am before the clouds rolled in. All quite short similar to what Goodrick saw in the post above. Not too bad considering I can only see half the sky from my garden.... and that half had the near 90% moon in it. 

[Helen]

Up to 9 in just under an hour    Mostly short, but one really nice slow burn one a couple of minutes ago.  Just in for a warm up, but hope the fog holds off to catch a couple more...

Helen

[starman1969]

It's been very impressive so far. Try this nice fireball.