AstroLandscapes #57 - Chasing Geminids at the Beach

[FenlandPaul]

Like many, I watched the weather forecast for the Geminid peak deteriorate as the big day approached, but I was reasonably hopeful the Suffolk coast would get a couple of hours of at least partially clear sky.  So I headed over to the beautiful pebble beach at Dunwich, a few miles south of Southwold, and arranged to meet a couple of other stargazers there as well (not something I do very often - usually a solitary soul!).

As I arrived at dusk, cloud was prevalent, but Jupiter began popping out through the murk with increasing frequency, bolstering my confidence.  As larger breaks in the cloud appeared, it was clear this was a wonderfully dark site, and in fact later on it was possible to see the full Milky Way band from the Great Rift in the north west all the way through fainter Cassiopeia, Perseus and down to the Orion regions in the south east. The wind off the north sea was fairly brisk, but that all added to the atmosphere.

By around 8.30pm, meteors began dropping with a decent cadence.  At times I spotted 4 or 5 bright ones well within a minute.  Some were rapid - gone almost as soon as I spotted them.  But some were long, bright and seemed to laze their way across the sky, occasionally leaving bright trains that would fade over a few seconds.  Over the night I must have seen 60 or 70.

I set up a few timelapses to capture different compositions and did what I could to just sit back and enjoy the show (not something that comes naturally, especially when trying to make videos as well!).  The guys I was with were deep sky imagers, so it was awesome to give them a change of scene and enjoy the whole dome of the sky as it is put on this spectacle - I highly recommend it to anyone!  Great to have company for a change, too.

Overall this was the best meteor shower I've enjoyed for a couple of decades, and it has certainly prompted me to spend more time just looking and less time faffing with cameras (something I'll be trying to remind myself of when we head back to Arctic Norway for the northern lights in a couple of months' time).  Some of the better images are below (including a meteor-less one of Orion) and I've also embedded a timelapse showing one of the meteor trains dissipating over about 12 minutes of real-time.  I also made a video journal of the night, which you can find linked at the bottom.

Hope you enjoy.  Thanks for all of your support in my nightscape imaging and video-making this year - I've thoroughly enjoyed it and always welcome feedback and hints.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. 😊

✨Impact✨

📷 Canon 6D (astro-modified) with Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens
🔧 8s exposure at ISO 6400 (additional 40 adjacent images from timelapse stacked for sky)
🎞️ Sky stacked in Sequator. Edited and assembled in Lightroom, Starnet++ and PhotoShop

 

✨High and Dry✨

📷Canon 6D (astro-modified) with Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens
🔧 29x13s exposures at ISO 6400 f/2.8
🎞️ Stacked in Sequator.  Edited in Photoshop.

✨ DIspersing meteor train (looped)✨

 

 

[glafnazur]

Excellent images Paul and I love all your video journals. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too 🎄

[FenlandPaul]

12 minutes ago, glafnazur said:

Excellent images Paul and I love all your video journals. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too 🎄

Thanks Dave - really appreciated.

[clarkpm4242]

Great video and images @FenlandPaul

Really great to see enjoyment of the night sky

Cheers, Paul.

[andrew63]

A memorable night, thanks for posting.

 

[AstroNebulee]

Beautiful images Paul. I will look at your video journal shortly. 

Have a great Christmas and New year to you and your family Paul. 

Lee 

[FenlandPaul]

7 hours ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Great video and images @FenlandPaul

Really great to see enjoyment of the night sky

Cheers, Paul.

Cheers Paul - yes, it’s awesome when someone rediscovers the simple joy of just looking. 👍

 

5 hours ago, andrew63 said:

A memorable night, thanks for posting.

 

You’re very welcome, Andrew - thank you.

 

5 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Beautiful images Paul. I will look at your video journal shortly. 

Have a great Christmas and New year to you and your family Paul. 

Lee 

Thanks Lee - really appreciated, as ever. Merry Christmas to you and yours too.