Geminids 2009

I know it was a week ago, but better late than never. This years Geminid meteor shower was spectacular, but the weather was so frustrating.

Heading off to my favourite dark site, just 20 minutes walk away and with a nice southernly view, I noticed that the cloud was following me. Should I give up before I'd even started observing? I stood and waited for maybe 15 minutes, until I saw a convincing gap in the clouds approaching. I looked in the opposite direction and saw a shooting star that convinced me to carry on and set up my camera.

Within seconds - there's a nice one. 15 seconds later - another. And then within a minute a trio heading from Gemini, low towards the left! The trio were not perfectly in sync, with milli-seconds between each, but they seemed to orignate from the same point. And then even more... I was amazed until, after just 10 minutes, thick cloud came in to end the day's play. How frustrating.

So, the Geminid shower remains my favourite, especially after seeing and astonishingly bright one back in 1994 (it so so bright it actually looked like a burning rock falling through the sky!).

It maybe cold at that time of year but with three pairs of trousers, and 5 layers on the top half, I was warm and was suitably rewarded.

Geminid meteor shower peaks

We are currently travelling through dust left behind by an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, which we think is an extinct comet. As the Earth travels through space at an astonishing 70,000 mph, these bits of dust hit the atmosphere causing "shooting stars" as the dust burns up.

You can see these shooting stars throughout mid-December, but the main peak is from the 12th to the 14th of December where you could see up to two a minute under ideal conditions.

It is (unfortunately!) best to see shooting stars in the early morning, a few hours before sunrise, since that is when we are stood on the "front" of the Earth as it orbits around the Sun. It's a bit like driving through snow - it looks best looking forward where you see all the snow rushing towards you, and it's not so exciting when you look out of the back window.