Astroblog: No Geminids for Me

Saturday, December 14, 2013

No Geminids for Me

So last night I got all set up for the Geminids, had my cameras and notebook out where I could get them as I went out the door so I wouldn't wake anyone scrabbling around. Junper, warm boots, red torch the lot. Went to bed reasonably early with a clear sky portending a good morning.

Alarm got me up and I wandered outside to cloud. Thick slabs of cloud. There were the occasional sucker holes, but these were nowhere near where either the Geminids nor the nova were.

I watched a while, just in case a decent gap opened up, but it didn't so I went back to bed. Today the sky is blue and clear of clouds, mocking me.

Reports from Australia that I have seen so far have been generally disappointing, only around 4-5 meteors an hour at best, well below the predictions from the meteor flux calculator. The data from the international meteor organisation shows reasonable rates in the Northern Hemisphere, so maybe we just had a lull.

I'll try and have another go tomorrow morning.

Labels: Meteors

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:30 am

Comments:

Drove from Adelaide to somewhere near Hamley bridge last night to get rid of clouds and light pollution in northern sky to find it was surprisingly clear. Reached there at 12:30 am. Before taking out the camera, did a meteor count/spread for 7 mins and saw only 1 meteor in that period. Even that was way out of the radiant and realised my ultra wide lens wont cover that if pointed at the radiant. Told myself it is going to be great during 2-4 am and went to gawler for a time killer coffee. Back at the same spot at 2 am and had the camera out quickly before the clouds could creep in. Only had abt 10 mins of clear sky before it became cloudy. Took 3- six minute exposures at ultra wide and none with a geminid. Next year, Geminid!

# posted by