Cracking skies but, my, it's windy and cold !

[John]

Rather against the forecast I've had dark clear skies tonight but a really gusty wind is keeping the temps way down so I'm popping in and and out alternating between spotting Geminid meteors and low power sky scanning with the ED120 refractor and a new-to-me 40mm eyepiece.

My true field with the scope / eyepiece combination is a rather lovely 2.8 degrees, very nearly enough to fit all 3 of Orion's belt stars into the same view so I've been exploiting that to gaze upon some of the more extensive visual treats:

- The massive M35 cluster in Gemini with the faint glow of the more distant NGC 2158 in it's outer reaches

- The M31 galaxy group with M31 massively extended and traces of the dark rifts defining the spiral arms on the M32 side of the core and M110 glowing softly on the opposite side.

- M1, the Crab Nebula easily fitting within the same field of as Zeta Tauri and showing very well for a relatively small aperture.

- The Pleiades - loads of them and with a good chunk of space framing the group as well. Faint traces of the reflection nebulosity around Merope and one or two of the other "sisters" showing that sky transparency is good.

- M42 and the full extent of Orions "sword" with the Trapezium and many other tiny points of light glowing within the clumpy central nebulosity and darker rift protruding into it. The more distant and fainter arcs of nebulosity showing with averted vision - lots of room to exploit this with such a large true field.

So lots of "rich field" fun with the scope distracting me from what should be the highlight of the night, the Geminids

So far I've seen 4 or 5 of these and all fairly bright, fast and with relatively short trails. One bright enough to show through thin cloud that had drifted over. The sky from Castor & Pollux down through Ursa Major seems to be more productive at the moment from a meteor point of view.

To the NE I can see the lions head and shoulders pawing their way up into the sky out of the Bristol glow as the swan plunges beak first to the horizon over the Brecon Beacons on the other side of the sky. Welcome Leo and adios Cygnus

Hope others have been having nice views and keeping warm(ish) at the same time

Jetstream (Gerry) in Canada can have a good smirk because I know that he observes in far colder conditions than this

 

 

 

[Charic]

The cold and ice put me off tonight, as did the street lights, however with Friday off and a long weekend ahead, its worth considering a trip away from home tomorrow or Friday night, especially with the break in the clouds, which  I've not seen for a while? 
Its probably warmer in my freezer than it is outside! and only a few miles South of my location, the road conditions are still bad, snow & ice  the problem, with some road closures in force, its just too risky to venture out. 

 

[Les Ewan]

HI John,

Its a filthy night here -1.2C  breezy and frequent snow showers,a little gap in the cloud allowed me to see 3 moderately bright Geminids through Leo in a minute around 00:35hrs so it appears your witnessing a good display.

Its a bit annoying considering the pristine viewing conditions I had  a few nights ago.

Les.

[John]

Well, at least you saw a few Les

Cloudy mostly here now though - just in time for the peak of the shower !

[alan potts]

You were lucky to get out John, I watched Man Utd on the box and it looked awful there so I bet Shane didn't get any viewing in. Clear here this morning, 0400  your time and a clear forecast for tonight, best not hold my breath.

[nightfisher]

we had frequent snow showers, and being a work night no go any way

[faulksy]

lovely report john, and nice to be out. had some more snow last night so no joy here. hopefully soon

[iPeace]

Only very intermittent peeks between cloud cover. Saw two Geminids total - unmistakable. Got out very early this morning to glimpse the Moon - but even grab-and-go doesn't win them all, had to run from the sudden rain (I had a bad feeling about those fast-moving clouds, just knew I couldn't trust them to behave). All good fun, though and all's well with the gear.

[Mark at Beaufort]

John I noticed that it was clear about 10pm so took out the Apollo 15x70 Binos for a quick grab and go. Saw a few Geminids and also viewed M35, M1 (a bit faint), M36, M37, M38, Pleiades (No Merope Neb), M33 and a look around Orion.

I tried to see NGC 253 in Sculptor going down from Deneb Kaitos through the two triangles but it was too misty.

[triton1]

I got as far as taking the rubbish out at 10pm hoping to see some meteors but got soaking wet instead straight back in for a warm.

[Les Ewan]

I was eventually very lucky I was just about to give up when the eastern sky cleared enough to put in a meteor shift between 02:15-03:15hrs. Scanning the sky from about Arcturus to Sirius centring on Leo in the SE,I was rewarded with 41 Geminids ranging between approx magnitude 5 to -3. I recorded no sporadics.Along with the few I saw earlier through the clouds my tally last night was 45 and 1 soradic.

[Trikeflyer]

Rubbish here, cloudy, heavy rain and biting cold wind.

[Charic]

...........same here, Wintery showers this evening.

[Pete Presland]

Excellently reported some very targets viewed there. The wind certainly did make it very cold! 

[Charic]

Still raining heavy! The best I'll get to see the Geminids tonight is on Stellarium?

[Charic]

Got into place at 0530 with Dubhe in my Zenith looking directly at Castor and saw my first meteor, just a quick one, heading away  from me, off to a good start!

At 0544 some cloud drifted through with the strong winds.

At 0547 an almighty 'FLASH' just to the vicinity left of Castor as viewed from my location, then another, and another, and so on! I took out the phone, but for some reason, nothing seemed to focus, not even on the street light through the tree's then the phone died and the apple logo appeared ? Just when you need it the most!

Any how, this continued for several minutes, passing very slowly across the sky, and I have replayed Stellarium  several times to find the satellite designation, though not sure how accurate the satellite information is) but now can't replicate the information, so don't have the name just yet. I first saw the flash to the left of Pollux - Castor as if forming the tip of a triangle, and lost sight  of the flashing just below Arcturus ( so I believe ) but can't see anything that matches that profile at present?

Finally Jupiter popped above 'my' horizon, time to go back in, as its a tad windy, even though I'm well wrapped.
Upon reaching the  front door, the 'dead' phone sounded its weekly 0600 alarm, which probably woke the neighbour? but the phone is showing 8% so probably the reason the camera did not work?

[Piero]

Just read this nice report!

I also like the views of those targets at low power. They offer a lovely context! 

It was cloudy over here so no observing unfortunately.

[Charic]

IMG_2516.MOV

My phone is alive again and amazingly, it did detect the flashes, but nothing else ?
The .mov provides no Star detail, in-fact no other detail at all, except for some wind and handling noise, but dim your lights and you may see a couple of the flashes, blink and you'll miss them!
In reality the flashes were intense, probably an iridium satellite, just can't extrapolate that information right now.