Geminids Meteor Shower - Viewing & Origin

[gaa_ian]

A bit of a background on the Geminid Meteor Shower:
One of the brightest recurring meteor showers in the sky happens from the 7th to the 17th December.

What will you see and when ?

They are known as the Geminids, and this year, due to the just barely past New Moon, they should be a great sight to see.

For best viewing conditions, be prepared to stay up late, though. The shower will generally start at 9:30 PM local time, and peak a few hours later, around 1 AM, and then fall off over the next few hours.

To spot the Geminids, look about half a degree from the stars Castor and Pollux in the sky, the shoulders of the Twins, and you'll see shooting stars moving rapidly across the sky as fragments of dust and a few pebbles burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. At its peak on the 14th of December, the Geminids will produce anywhere from 100 to 140 "shooting stars" per hour.

The best way to view a meteor shower is to find a comfortable reclining lawn chair or picnic mat and pillow. Lay back and point your feet in the direction of the radiant, look above and around it, as the meteors can begin quite some distance from the radient.

What are they ?

The Geminids were first spotted in 1861, and have recurred (with varying intensity) every year there after.

Originally considered an anomaly, because they weren't associated with a comet (as was demonstrated with the Perseids), the Gemenids were eventually linked to a near earth object called 3200 Phaethon.

3200 Phaethon was found to have a very comet-like eccentric orbit with a period of 1.41 years, when it was discovered in 1983. Current thinking is that Phaethon is the dessicated husk of a comet that's lost all of its volatiles from close passes to the Sun (it gets to half the distance Mercury does at perihelion.)

3200 Phaethon is only visible to someone with a large telescope due to it's faintness. At its closest approach to earth, at 11 million kilometers, will be visible in the constellation Virgo. At only 5 km in diameter, and with a medium albedo, 3200 Phaethon will look like a 14.5 magnitude star. 3200 Phaethon is in the category of objects considered potential impact hazards to the Earth. At 5 km in diameter, it's roughly half the diameter of the Chixchulub impactor that seems to have ended the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Phaethon's other remarkable feature is that it approaches the Sun closer than any other cataloged asteroid. The surface temperature at its closest (perihelion) could reach approximately 1025 Kelvin.

This explains why it was named after the Greek mythological figure Phaëton, son of the sun god Helios.

3200 Phaethon will approach relatively close to the Earth on December 14, 2093, passing within 0.0198 AU (Astronomical Units) or 2.97 million km.

[ballaratdragons]

I was watching some Geminids while on the phone with Bert at 2am this morning :thumbsup:

While he was talking, I kept going 'ooo, there goes another one" :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Here is a map to help locate the radiant.

Do not look directly at the Radiant (red circle) but look for them shooting along a bit further out (blue arrows). Some can appear even further out but still in a radiant line to the original source.

It is on nights of Meteor watching that you also notice how many sporadics there are (dark sky helps).

I have just been outside, and the same as last night, the Geminids are already spitting out some nice bright meteors. So Friday night should be fantastico!!!

Happy Meteoring :thumbsup:

[fringe_dweller]

weathers not looking too good for me for fri night/sat morn AM :sadeyes: :rolleyes: oh well, look forward to hearing some reports maybe :)
cheers for heads up Ken :thumbsup: good to know!

great write up Ian, only would add, reading things like this are encouraging!

'..There is one other item of note. Models predicting the evolution of this shower by J. Jones and R.L. Hawkes suggest that by 2050 the Geminid ZHR may reach 190 per hour before declining in later years, making it the dominant meteor shower of our century. Might as well make friends with it this year!'

from namnnotes

http://www.namnmeteors.org/namnnotes0712.html

[erick]

I gotta do it from somewhere near Mittagong this weekend. Weather forecast looks promising. Fingers crossed! Thanks for the map, Ken! :thumbsup:

[Outbackmanyep]

According to BOM weather forecast........Saturday for me is going to be mostly fine.....mostly in the way that its gonna be sunny then cloudy right on dark so i'll miss out! BUT....fingers crossed....looks like another trip to the local dirt "airport" for me!

Cheers!

[davidpretorius]

thanks for the drawing and map ken

[ballaratdragons]

Here is an easier one for folks that can't follow maps with lots of stars in them. I made this one very basic. :thumbsup:

[alan meehan]

thanks for the map ken ,now all we need is some clear skies,been cloudy &rain for two weeks:(

[Mikezoom]

Wow thanks Ken, all the best for all viewing and clear skies!!! :)

Mike.

[Jarrod]

any body seen much yet?

seems pretty quiet so far, i've only seen 4 or 5.

Jarrod

[gaa_ian]

Thanks for the easy Maps Ken
I have been out tonight looking up with a comfy chair and a few glasses of red wine with a mate.
We saw about 10/hr with one awesome Geminid fireball 1/2 way across the sky :eyepop:
We are having a club observing night tomorrow night to catch the predicted peak.
Lets hope the clear skies hold out :shrug:

[lepton3]

Viewing from Aldinga, south of Adelaide, 0200 to 0330 this morning (local time).

Saw 30 Geminids in total, and 3 sporadics. Beautiful skies, and beautiful warm conditions. Probably the most pleasant meteor observing session I've done.

Got some really nice shots with the DSLR, but no geminids unfortunately!

Ivan

[caleb]

I was wandering if it was Thursday night into Friday morning or Friday night into Saturday morning. I didn't see many this Friday morning, I only saw about 10 in 1 hour.

:mad2:

[Meadehead]

Someone will correct me if i'm wrong but I believe it will be tonight into Saturday morning.
I'll be out pending weather, hope it's a good one:thumbsup:

[glenc]

Meteor shower to brighten night skies
Stargazers have the chance to spot a meteor shower in the skies tonight. If the clouds hold off, the annual Geminids meteor shower will be visible to the naked eye from about midnight until dawn.
Astronomer Nick Lomb from the Sydney Observatory says those wanting the best view should look to the northern sky for the meteor shower's peak at about 3:45am AEDT.
"Expect just bright streaks in the sky. They could be anywhere in the sky but they would all appear to originate from that, from a spot fairly low down in the northern sky.
"They'd look like fireworks or distant flares in the sky."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/14/2119401.htm

[maksutover]

Skies are beautiful! Havnt see orion for so long its a little emotional for me :) . Ill be reporting on how many i see tomorrow.

Cheerio and CLEAR SKIES!!!

[Starbuck]

Gee, thanks for the easy-to-follow maps and background info guys. I'm going out meteor spotting tonight!

[thorsdad]

Hi guys,

nice and clear in Melbourne now, the wind has blown the clouds away. Setting up in the front yard with the missus and a couple of armchairs.

Give us your reports and let us know how many you see and what they were like. Some pics would be awesome if you can get some.

Cheers.:thumbsup:

[snowyskiesau]

Just watched the late news on the ABC and the Geminids rated a mention.
Not a lot of detail about where to look or when.

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, tonight is the night!

We have had crystal clear glass-like skies for the last 11 nights in a row :eyepop:

but tonight is cloudy :(

I just checked again and it apperas the wind is starting to clear the Eastern & North-Eastern horizon! Exactly where Gemini will rise :cool:

Blow wind, blow!!!

[fringe_dweller]

:rolleyes: sigh, you have got to laugh dont you? - how many times have I seen a star trail pic used to illustrate a meteor shower in mainstream news :doh: its hard to be critical i spose, i'm just glad tonight its mainstream i suppose and getting a mention is something :thumbsup:

[iluvsaturn]

Absolutely beautiful clear skies up here 190 metres above sea level at Kariong, just returned from superb night with friends dining at Trevisanos use to be Zest(Giberto from Villa Sorgenti, now the restauranteur told me he retired with a vengeance) service and meals positively exemplary. Sitting back and waiting for the show! :):)

[Meadehead]

Well, I saw three and then the clouds rolled in:( Doesn't look like it will clear up for any further viewing, too bad.

I hope you all had good luck and look forward to reading some reports.
Good night :zzz:

[circumpolar]

Clear skies over North Richmond.

Here's the picture.........
Myself, a 7 year old & a 10 year old, all in sleeping bags lying on a trampoline looking upwards.

Score...

7 y.o. - 49 meteors
10 y.o. - 42 meteors
me - 42 meteors

TOTAL - 133 meteors! :D

Not a bad effort for 2 hours. Started at 2am.

Most were medium to slow speeds. Many bright ones appeared blueish.
About 6 sporatics.

Kids are now tired so off to bed we go.

:)

[glenc]

I saw one very bright meteor moving to the right (east) above Regulus and Saturn. It was white, moving slowly and brighter than Mars, not a Geminid. Also saw about 10 faint meteors.

[Karls48]

Last night my Meteor capture camera (az 321° al 40° fov 48°) recorded 43 meteors. From it 4 were sporadic and the rest Geminids.
Brightest one had peak magnitude -1.7 and was visible for 1.4 seconds moving at 38 km/s.

[thorsdad]

Nice one Karl. Do you have a link where you could put the vid up, maybe youtube or something? Would be great to see.

We first set up in the front yard at 23:00 local time, at about 23:15, the missus (Sharon) saw one meteor starting near canis major (and brighter than it) moving south and ended up in carina somewhere. She described it as like a flare :eyepop:. Went for about 3 seconds. Damn, I missed that one:doh:.

I saw another nice one, slow moving started near orion moving south past canis major. No colour but could see a glowing head get bigger for a moment, then faded out, went for about 2 seconds.

At about 00:30, we moved to the back yard, a bit darker without the street lights. We saw a few more short streaks, some quick, some a bit slower from around the gemini, orion, near mars, and even a bit south near canis major. Some travelling north and south, and a few east and west.

All in all, we observed from about 23:00 to 02:00 when cloud started rolling in. We totalled about 13. Not huge, but our best meteor viewing session. And the best one of all was the one the Sharon saw at about 23:15. Sharon woke up about 04:00 and checked the conditions : Cloudy so we didn't bother getting up to observe. We'll try again tonight, raining at the moment, hopefully clears up.

Thanks for the reports guys :thumbsup:

[gaa_ian]

What a night !
I was out with a few other keen club members observing Geminids from our dark sky site 10km from town.
Between 10pm and 2am we saw 100's of Geminids :eyepop:
Our more northerly declination will have contributed to the number of meteors spotted.
We noticed that many of them started a long way from the radiant, only bursting to life behind us, as we looked 20 to 30 Deg above and beside the radiant.
This is the first time I have seen this shower as the Wet Season is usually beginning by this time of year, this time we got lucky :thumbsup:

[casstony]

I guess not everyone gets excited to see a meteor shower - Two astronauts on the International Space Station will make a spacewalk next week to find out if a micrometeoroid strike damaged a critical part of the outpost's power system, officials said on Thursday.

[Starbuck]

Only managed to catch sight of about 4 behind very cloudy skies here :(

[Omaroo]

Lucky bugga Ian :)

It was a clear night where I was (southern Sydney - and I saw a grand total of 2 between 23:00 and 01:00. Very disappointing at 34 degrees south.

[h0ughy]

they were fantastic last night /this morning. I saw several bright ones and a lot of faint ones. well over 30 for the few hours I was out until 3 am

[edwardsdj]

Saw many Geminids from Wivenhoe dam just West of Brisbane.

What was unusally was the high activitiy of what appeared to be a second radiant towards the East though (at least 10 per hour). Did anyone else see or record activity from this second radiant?

Many of the meteors from this second radiant left trains that persisted for a few seconds much like many of the Geminids I saw.

Have fun,
Doug

[Geoff-]

I was watching in Sydney around 3am and saw a few Geminids, and at least two meteors travelling at 90 degrees to the shower - heading east. One was pretty spectacular.

[Karls48]

Hi Doug, you got keen eyes. Yes, you are right some of what is accepted as Geminids meteors have actual radiant in anti-helion source. I noticed only because I use CCD camera to capture meteors and software that plots radiant.

[gaa_ian]

I have decided to get myself one of those click counters so I can keep track of just how many meteors I am seeing !

[Astro78]

Buggar, we had to have our x-mas party on the 1st clear night in donkey's AND during the Meteor shower of the year! :cheers::cheers:

Did see some interesting sights in the Cross about 4am but not in the sky.
:cheers:

[edwardsdj]

Hi Karl,

Great to get some confirmation of this second radiant. A second radiant more or less overhead (from Brisbane) at midnight would explain everything I saw. It would also explain:

1. the meteors Geoff saw heading East at 90 degrees to the shower;
2. the meteors I saw deep in the South that I assumed were Geminids; and
3. the meteors seen by myself and Rob heading North.

I had assumed there was another radiant in the South causing me to see many meteors heading North against the Geminid stream. A second radiant overhead explains all of this.

If this is the case, this second radiant had far higher activity than the Geminids between about midnight and 1am from my location near Brisbane.

I would love to see a link to your video :)

Have fun,
Doug

[Karls48]

Hi Doug, sorry I don’t have web page. I got enough troubles to keep 4 computers running and don’t need another worry with Internet. Each video is around 30Mb and I got about thousand of them. If you are interested in video meteor capture have look on http://sonotaco.com/soft/e_index.html (http://sonotaco.com/soft/e_index.html) . Their program with unfortunate name UFOCapture and UFO Analyser is about the best meteor capture software I can find on the net. Demo will run without any restriction for 30 day. The software is not easy to use but if you persist it will make sense. It will calculate peak magnitude of meteor and if it comes from known radiant it will give you its speed, hight and distance from observing point. It will show meteor trail over the map of Australia and if you got data from two recording stations it will calculate and plot meteors orbit.
For other simple meteor capture solution have look on http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=20808&highlight=Meteor+capture+cheap (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=20808&highlight=Meteor+capture+cheap)

[geoff_melb]

Hi all,

Just an update re Geminids meteor shower.

Myself and a couple of EAMN observers were up at
Tocumwal NSW for a few days around the Geminids maximum. We had lots of
fantastic observing with a 10" F5 newt on a computer controlled mount
under extremely dark skies , at times approaching a naked eye LM of +7.0

The night before the shower maximum we were doing mostly deep-sky work,
but during observing saw a number of fine and bright meteors, some from
the Geminid shower, and others from Puppid-Velid complex.
The highlight was a geminid that left a train in the sky for about
5minutes. We quickly pointed the 10" on the train and saw the amazing
sight of the train dissipating and wafting in the upper atmosphere,
changing shape rather rapidly much like a puff of smoke from a cigarette.

Come the night of the Geminid maximum; after a week of fantastic clear
nights, we were partly clouded out, much due to what appeared to be
upper atmpsheric smoke from the fires on Kangaroo Island.This also
explained the very red sun at sunset and the dark blood red moon early
in the evening. We were left with much reduced transparency, and a LM
of around +5.2 to +5.5

Despite the poor conditions we still managed 1.75 hours each for a total
of 5.25 hours of observing on the morning of the 15/12(aedt), which was
around the predicted shower maximum of 02:45 AEDT.
The highlight, a -3mag geminid over zenith. Rates were ok, we each saw
27 to 28 geminids over a 2 hour period. Given the conditions and
position of the radiant we factored something close to a ZHR of 115
meteors.
Our observations are in line with reported obs from all around the world
which show that there were 2 peaks, the first occurring ealier than
predicted, at approx 22:00-23:59UT on 13/12, with a ZHR of around 120
meteors. The second peak occurred at the predicted time of around
14:00-18:00UT on 14/12, with a ZHR of approx 135-155 meteors.

Whilst observing deep sky on the morning of the 17/12 AEDT, we had
another look but geminids were far and few between, with only a couple
seen during the night.

We now wait for the next big shower, the eta Aquarids in May 2008 which
is usually a very reliable shower, and produce much faster meteors than
the Geminids. The etas are known for producing bright meteors with
longer paths, and with the favourable moon conditions (new moon on the
night of the maximum) and a predicted ZHR of around 70 meteors, it could
be a good show.

Geoff C

[fringe_dweller]

really enjoyed everybody's reports!! wow sounds like a missed a good one lol!
it's great to see meteor shower watching regaining some profile in oz, and growing in numbers on IIS! it helps when its now so well co-ordinated thru the net as demonstrated here,, you know a number of the alternative precise to the minute predictions of the peak(s) for certain meteor showers don't get released till the very last minute sometimes and then only via the net, so no good using books/mags at times eh.
i hope to be able to have weather and time on my side for the ETA's, hopefully :)