Quote :

"Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends. The best meteor shower of 2009 is about to fall over North America on a long, cold December night. "It's the Geminid meteor shower," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "and it will peak on Dec. 13th and 14th under ideal viewing conditions." A new Moon will keep skies dark for a display that Cooke and others say could top 140 meteors per hour. According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity should occur around 12:10 a.m. EST (0510 UT) on Dec. 14th. The peak is broad, however, and the night sky will be rich with Geminids for many hours and perhaps even days around the maximum. "

Anyone elses going to watch? And if so where are you going? Had some trouble finding a good spot last time. That article didn't mention it but from what I've read the meteors from this shower are often colored (yellow, green and blue are most common), so that will be interesting to see.


more information and history if anyone is interested http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/08dec_geminids.htm

12/10/2009 4:26:23 PM

shit

I missed the leonids b/c I was sick. This is a fantastic excuse to make a real short weekend trip out to somewhere dark/.

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 4:27 PM. Reason : ds]

12/10/2009 4:27:43 PM

whoops qntmfred can you move to the lounge

12/10/2009 4:27:45 PM

I need to plan better for this one. For the Leonids, pretty much none of my friends wanted to watch, and the couple that did ended up going to Lake Johnson which was NOT a good spot (though we did see a few really good ones).

12/10/2009 4:29:27 PM

i was surprised at how hard it was to find someplace. Once we got out into the country we didn't have the problem with the lights but we couldn't find anyplace with a clearing. And what are you going to do, just park the car in someone's field and hope you don't get shot?

12/10/2009 4:33:02 PM

i would like to shower with some gemini twinz

12/10/2009 4:37:00 PM

^Thats what I do. Park in a field near the grass strip of the airport about 5 minutes from my house. Perfect viewing for astronomical events. One of the few advantages to living in a town of about 5000 people.

12/10/2009 4:37:49 PM

Goddammit every time there's a shower lately it's raining where I am

Quote :

"And what are you going to do, just park the car in someone's field and hope you don't get shot?"

That's what we always did in Vermont

[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 7:53 PM. Reason : .]

12/10/2009 7:52:22 PM

Quote :

"And what are you going to do, just park the car in someone's field and hope you don't get shot?"

This works.

12/10/2009 9:55:57 PM

The best I've managed for the last two showers was to lay in Harris Field back behind Lee Hall when shit starts happening. It's worked out okay so far, and would have been better if the Leonids didn't blow overall.

I'll go to this one, since it's peak should be earlier and better.

12/10/2009 10:08:21 PM

Well damn, it's supposed to be cloudy Sunday night and partly cloudy Monday night.

12/11/2009 9:51:49 AM

The current forecast calls for rain on Sunday, so I doubt the sky will be clear

[Edited on December 11, 2009 at 10:19 AM. Reason : ^ahh]

12/11/2009 10:19:15 AM

Geminids pwnt. Stay home.

12/11/2009 10:21:52 AM

nobody else?

12/12/2009 7:37:35 PM

Current forecast (via Weather Underground) says clear skies Sunday night with periods of fog but temps in the mid 30s. So, it'd be a good night to grab some soup/hot chocolate and a nice blanket and someone to snuggle under it with.

12/12/2009 7:41:40 PM

Raining all day here, possibly tomorrow . . . but I've got Monday off so I'll be out there if it clears up.

12/12/2009 7:46:56 PM

^^ exactly!

12/12/2009 7:54:51 PM

Of course it's cloudy

12/12/2009 8:24:06 PM

I would love to watch - but the area I'm in has way too much light pollution - I don't think I'd be able to see anything

12/12/2009 11:28:13 PM

I'm in a good spot for it, but I haven't seen hardly any meteors in the last "major" showers we've had

12/12/2009 11:40:53 PM

want to photograph.

12/12/2009 11:48:07 PM

you seen one meteor, you seen 'em all

12/12/2009 11:50:21 PM

i haven't seen a meteor shower before though. i tried to stay up for the last one with no luck. i kept waking up every so often to see them, but had no luck with that either.

12/12/2009 11:54:19 PM

the ones lately have just been crappy I think

12/13/2009 12:26:27 AM

I agree with Quinn. Parking in a field and hoping you don't get shot actually works quite well. Had I realized there was another shower tonight, it's what I'd be doing.

12/13/2009 2:38:28 AM

it's tomorrow night, isn't it

not going on right now, correct?

12/13/2009 2:53:18 AM

Ah, true. I misread. My humblest apologies.

12/13/2009 2:54:39 AM

Quote :

"want to photograph."

me too! it would be a pain in the ass without a remote though

12/13/2009 3:45:57 AM

^set your timer to 1 or 2 seconds

12/13/2009 3:48:30 AM

Quote :

"So, it'd be a good night to grab some soup/hot chocolate and a nice blanket and someone to snuggle under it with."

some of us can only wish for someone to snuggle with

12/13/2009 9:11:33 AM

thats what my dog is for


im also hoping he keeps me from getting kidnapped

12/13/2009 2:36:42 PM

is it supposed to clear up tonight

12/13/2009 2:48:27 PM

news14

Quote :

"Sunday night: Decreasing cloudiness and rather cool, with some pockets of potentially dense fog possible late. Lows in the mid 30s to around 40. Winds from the west at 5mph."

weather channel

Quote :

"Tonight: A few clouds. Low 36F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph."

weather underground

Quote :

"Mostly cloudy in the evening...then becoming partly cloudy. Widespread fog after midnight. Lows in the mid 30s. West winds 5 to 10 mph."

12/13/2009 2:56:21 PM

I should be up; I'll go out to check either way

12/13/2009 3:09:50 PM

Anybody planning to go check it out? I just popped out and its actually clear skies here right now. Looks like I might get a chance to go out and try for some meteor photography!

12/13/2009 10:23:30 PM

still clouded over where I am

12/14/2009 12:00:00 AM

goddamned fog

12/14/2009 12:10:15 AM

I am rather upset about it myself

12/14/2009 12:10:47 AM

12/14/2009 12:31:48 AM

12/14/2009 1:03:29 AM

I got some really good viewing for an hour and a half. I took my D40 and went out about 11:15 and got about 4 different pictures with meteors in them. I would post them, but my Flickr account is being a bitch and its too late for me to screw with tonight. But yea, the fogged rolled in around 12 and ended my photographing for the night. I will post pictures tomorrow though.

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 1:10 AM. Reason : ]

12/14/2009 1:08:20 AM

where are you?

12/14/2009 1:18:15 AM

they will still be visible until the 17th.........so maybe it will clear up just in time to see a few

the quadrantids are peaking on jan 3rd after midnight

12/14/2009 12:11:13 PM

I drove from Apex to Charlotte and left at 10pm right when it was nice and foggy. Got to the Gboro 85 bypass and it cleared up perfectly for all of 5 minutes and 3 meteors before I went back into the fog. Felt tired otherwise I would've pulled over and watched from near an exit/overpass. Could've sworn one of them was slightly greenish.

12/14/2009 7:09:15 PM

^^

12/14/2009 7:20:26 PM

darn fog and clouds

still here so I can't see if there are any leftover ones tonight

12/15/2009 12:28:30 AM

12/15/2009 12:35:51 AM

still can't see anything

12/15/2009 11:17:27 PM

me neither! curses!

12/16/2009 12:15:03 AM

We've had rain every day since Sunday, hopefully it'll clear up tonight

Are there any coming in January?

12/16/2009 7:19:19 AM