Last update: December 3, 2009
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Geminid Meteor Shower: After a very (very, very) disappointing Leonid bust it's time to look forward. The good news is that you can't get much worse than the leonid bust lol. The Geminids are a much more consistent shower, constantly putting out ZHRs of 80+ meteors. This year the predicted peak is 140 meteors per hour! During the Perseids I witnessed an average hourly rate of 32 ZHR, with one short burst of 60 ZHR. With proper conditions I could easily blow my Perseid observing stats out of the water.
Activity should start to pick up around the 10th of December and gradually increase until the peak on the night of the 13th/morning of the 14th when 100+ meteors an hour could be seen under excellent sky conditions. The moon will be new during the peak so it won't interfere with observing conditions. Lets just hope that clouds won't be a problem. The radiant will be high pretty high in the sky at 9p.m. local time, so observing could start at sunset and last through to dawn. So I guess I just wait until the 10th gets here and start looking at forecasts.
Perseid Meteor Shower Report: I watched the shower during the predicted peak (August 12, 2009) from 02z until 08z at Murray Hill in Little Sioux, Iowa. This is the best dark sky location I have found that is within an hours drive of my home. In those 6 hours I observed 217 meteors, of which nearly 180 were Perseids. I was attempting to photograph some of them but was very unsuccessful the first night, partly because I had shot lightning for 30 minutes prior to complete darkness and drained one of the batteries for my camera.
I observed an outburst at 0645z until 0715z where 41 meteors fell from the radiant in Perseus. At one point 5 shot out in 30 seconds going different directions, this clearly identifying the radiants location. Just moments after this patchy clouds moved in, ending my observing session.
The following night was claimed to possibly be better since it had not officially peaked. I decided to test my luck at imaging a fireball and set out. Watched the skies from 0230z until 0520z and witnessed 56 meteors, and probably 45 of those were Perseids. Was a bit more successful in imaging, although it is not a great image, it is clearly identifiable. Take a look at the image here.
Clouds moved in once again ending the session. Overall it was a great spectacle to watch. I've never seen so many meteors in one sitting than August 12th. I hope to break this record with the Leonids this fall however. The tallied total for the entire shower is 273 meteors in 8 hours and 30 minutes. The average ZHR (zenith hourly rate) was 32 meteors per hour during the entire observing period.
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