Geminids Meteor Shower

[nsfx]

Hi guys, we are interested in getting good views of the meteor shower at it's peak tomorrow morning.

Anyone have any idea whereabouts in Melbourne will be good for views? I understand we need to be as far north as possible so I was thinking Mount Macedon area. Any suggestions? Thanks! :D

[AussieTrooper]

Dark skies are important for meteor watching. Head as far north of Melbourne as you can.

[Pinwheel]

I'm in the Western Victorian Wimmera district, It was fantastic last year. I just hope the clouds play nice tonight. :)

[AussieTrooper]

I'm always a little jealous of those with skies like you...

[declan.mullen]

I've never tried to see meteors before, so I don't know how dark the skies need to be to see any of these Geminids. I read a post that suggested it was necessary to be 100km+ out of Melbourne central to see meteors. Seems like a long way.

I'm in Nunawading (eastern Melbourne suburb, about 25km from city center). I understand that further out from the city will be darker and darker is better, however how far out of Melbourne will I need to go to see any of these Geminids meteors with the naked eye ?

Eg is Coldstream (about 50km from city center) far enough out ?

I ask because I want to take my young kids and I want them to be able to see something, but at the same time I want to minimise their travel time.

Thanks,
Declan

[Atmos]

According to Skippy Sky it doesn't matter where you try to hide because the clouds will find you! :P

[pgc hunter]

Full overcast here, and radar showing showers/storm heading this way. Hot and very humid outside aswell. Ofcourse, tonight HAD to be that ONE overcast night :rolleyes:

[BilliGoatsGruff]

Do you think tomorrow (Wednesday) morning should still be good for viewing?

I hope you all in Melbourne are lucky enough for clear skies!

[MortonH]

Saw 17 Geminids over the last 3 hours from my balcony. Given the light pollution, patchy cloud and the fact that I could only see a third of the sky, I'm quite happy.

[erick]

Clouded out in Israel :sadeyes:

[Pinwheel]

The clouds won last night..:( It must of been good though because we saw some flashes through the cloud layer to the North, It wasn't lightning.

[h0ughy]

well I took images from 9pm right through until 4am when the fog set in. scrolling through the 1000 odd images I took I got a helicopter and a plane but no meteors at all. bugger

my effort is here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=1219535#post121953 5)

[sharptrack2]

Being a work day the next day limited my viewing to 90 minutes or so, 11:00 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. But did manage to see 5 weak streakers through the mist that was developing. I don't think I would have seen much more if I had stayed out, the sky was getting lighter (misty, foggy, cloudy) by the minute. :(

[CJ]

I got 6 between 10 and midnight. 4 weak ones, one out of the corner of my eye and one quite one bright exactly where I happened to be looking. :)
Beautiful evening for it too :)

[AussieTrooper]

You'll see more from Coldstream. To get a good view, you need the view to the north a non-light polluted region. Since you are effectively inside the bubble looking out (even from Coldstream), you will still lose some, but it will be better than Nunawading.
Here’s a light pollution map that you might find useful.
http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

That said, you should still be able to see some of the brighter ones from Nunawading. I'm well inside the red zone (Balwyn) and still see the occasional meteor.

[TRX]

I got one good shot out of the ~30 that I saw in a few hours. Too much light pollution from suburban Perth (25km north of CBD near coast) to get them all on camera as they were very faint, but it was a good show.

Timelapse - not very good, can only see 4 or 5, a satellite and a few planes :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr2LNAvrhQs&feature=youtu.be

[axmuradi]

Well what a frustrating evening. Cloud cover made viewing and focusing difficult. I ran two cameras on time lapse from midnight to about 3AM local time. I had clear(ish) skies around 1:30AM which was supposed to be the peak of the shower. But only spotted 6 or seven meteors in my pics. I posted a time lapse (apologies for soft focus on the stars - bummer).

https://youtu.be/_QNSj5zq4sQ

I did come across a mystery however. A shot at 1:43am local time shows a bright star like object south of the southern cross but is not in frame before or after that single shot. Any ideas would be appreciated. I posted the three shots below. Maybe a remnant of exploding meteor - but no trail? Again very soft focus!:mad2:

Cheers

[Sconesbie]

Clear skies in Northern Tas last night. I was up at 1:30am and saw a couple but not a lot. Didn't stay out too long. Bloody street lights killed the dark skies though. Might try again tonight.

[Pinwheel]

Looks good for tonight here, I'll give it a look around 1 am hopefully better than last night.

[Tropo-Bob]

I saw a few short-lived bright ones, mainly in Leo.

[Bendy]

I saw an absolute cracker at 10pm, burnt long and slow from near Sirius through to south and west of the SMC. Got up again at 3:30am for half an hour and saw three smaller, fainter ones.

[Pinwheel]

Clear night, saw 3 short bursts & gave up. I saw more satellites than anything else. Really disappointing.

[AussieTrooper]

Very clear and still over Melbourne last night.
Just the one (likely a sporadic) seen though. Observed from about 1030-1100. A bit obtimistic really...
On the plus side, saw the dimmest star yet from my backyard, Mag 4.6. Crappy compared to most places, but not bad for the inner city.

[mattyb217]

I tried setting up in the backyard last night but the neighbors Christmas lights put a stop to that idea

[rustigsmed]

this morning, saw quite a few bright ones plus a bunch of very faint ones, yellow and white. :thumbsup:

[AussieTrooper]

Bugger. They’ll be up right at the time you can put in a few late nights, not having to work the next day.
I have a few neighbours that have them set up, but I put in a higher than normal (6’8”) fence on their side, and on the other side there’s an old chinese lady who must retire by about 8pm each day judging by the lack of light coming from her house, which is right on the fence line. Surprisingly, the darkest part of my yard is right at the front door.