The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
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The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
"An asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon is responsible for the Geminid meteor shower. 3200 Phaethon was discovered on images taken by IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite) on October 11, 1983, by Simon Green and John Davies. Initially named 1983 TB, it was given an asteroid name, 3200 Phaethon, in 1985. After the orbit was calculated, Fred Whipple announced that this asteroid has the same orbit as the Geminid meteor shower. This was very unusual, since an asteroid had never been associated with a meteor shower. It is still not known how material from the asteroid’s surface, or interior, is released into the meteoroid stream. The Japanese spacecraft DESTINY+ (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for Interplanetary Voyage with Phaethon Flyby and Dust Science) is expected to be launched in 2024 to visit the asteroid in 2028."
We started our viewing at 2300 hrs, and continued until 0400 hrs. Our total count was 503 meteors, or just about 100 meteors per hour! Several were "Jupiter bright", with one extending from Castor to Jupiter. In all my years of meteor viewing, this was my most memorable ever!
Dave
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http://www.unitronhistory.com
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
My skies were cloudy, unfortunately. 503 must be near a record for the observation of meteors. Great report, too.
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
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Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Delos, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.
Solar: HA: Lunt 50mm single stack, W/L: Meade Herschel wedge.
Observing: DSOs: 3122 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2196, S110: 77). Doubles: 2461, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 261
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Telescopes: 50mm refractor, ED80 triplet, 90mm makcass, 10" dob, 8"SCT, 11"SCT
Mounts: Celestron CGX, Orion Sirius + several camera tripods
Cameras: Canon 6D, Canon 80D, ZWO-ASI120MC
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- Unitron48
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Thanks, Michael, Andrey, Rob!
The temperature hit 20 F by the time we were closing up, but given the frequency of the meteors, it wasn't a distraction.
Dave
Stellarvue SVX127D
http://www.unitronhistory.com
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein
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As long as show is exciting one can brave the elements. There are also external and internal ways to warm up.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Delos, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.
Solar: HA: Lunt 50mm single stack, W/L: Meade Herschel wedge.
Observing: DSOs: 3122 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2196, S110: 77). Doubles: 2461, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 261
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Edit: I forgot to mention, my vote for
All the best,
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Too much Towa glass/mirrors.
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REFRACTOR , TS-Optics Doublet SD-APO 125 mm f/7.8 . Lunt 80mm MT Ha Doublet Refractor .
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
My neighbor and I sat in my back yard from 2100 to 2330 and observed perhaps 50. Best shower of the year.
.
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* Celestron C6 SCT on a Twilight 1 Alt-Az mount
Prof. Barnhardt to Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still: "There are several thousand questions I'd like to ask you.”
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I honestly had forgotten about the Geminids, and was at the dark site last night (and the night before). I was of course chasing galaxies as is typical. But when my eyes were away from the eyepiece I did notice more meteors than typical in the ENE, and it hit me that it was Geminid night! But by 10PM I had had enough of the cold and hunting galaxies that I called it a night.
However, that is not the end of the story. I woke up sometime after 4AM and decided I would go out for a little bit. So I put on my heavy coat, gloves and ski cap and headed outside with my observing chair. I sat in the driveway facing west since Gemini was over there by then. I managed to stick it out for about half an hour and counted 25 meteors, in and around Gemini and back toward the east when I turned my head a bit. Some were as bright as Jupiter as you mentioned. Plus, I saw one around Corvus that left a slowly fading trail, and another one down around Antlia that I caught in my periphery when it went out in a big flash. So given what I saw during my quick little look, I can well imagine that over the course of those hours with multiple sets of eyes it had to be fantastic! Well done, all of you.
Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
EPs: AT 82° 28mm UWA || TV Ethos 100° 21mm and 13mm || Vixen LVW 65° 22mm ||
ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
- Unitron48
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Thanks, Michael! Always appreciated.
Dave
Stellarvue SVX127D
http://www.unitronhistory.com
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein
- Unitron48
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Thanks, Alan! Don't believe I'll ever top this meteor shower! As far as the cold goes, the heated socks my wife got for me several years ago work great!kt4hx wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 3:02 am That is really great Dave, an outstanding evening of frigid meteor watching! I will give you folks credit for enduring the cold for that long, but the rewards were an amazing number of meteors - simply WOW! Most assuredly a VROD report.
I honestly had forgotten about the Geminids, and was at the dark site last night (and the night before). I was of course chasing galaxies as is typical. But when my eyes were away from the eyepiece I did notice more meteors than typical in the ENE, and it hit me that it was Geminid night! But by 10PM I had had enough of the cold and hunting galaxies that I called it a night.
However, that is not the end of the story. I woke up sometime after 4AM and decided I would go out for a little bit. So I put on my heavy coat, gloves and ski cap and headed outside with my observing chair. I sat in the driveway facing west since Gemini was over there by then. I managed to stick it out for about half an hour and counted 25 meteors, in and around Gemini and back toward the east when I turned my head a bit. Some were as bright as Jupiter as you mentioned. Plus, I saw one around Corvus that left a slowly fading trail, and another one down around Antlia that I caught in my periphery when it went out in a big flash. So given what I saw during my quick little look, I can well imagine that over the course of those hours with multiple sets of eyes it had to be fantastic! Well done, all of you.
Dave
Stellarvue SVX127D
http://www.unitronhistory.com
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Great!
Clouded here...
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
Amateur astronomer since 1970.
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Re: The Geminids...Oh Boy!!
Unfortunately we were in the middle of a snow storm...
See Far Sticks: Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser 127/1200 BV, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS 100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
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