Geminids from the back step, at minus three
The Geminids are the best meteor shower of the year and almost nobody watches them, because they happen in December. This year the peak fell on the night of the 13th into the 14th, and the Moon was a thin waning crescent that did not rise until the small hours. Clear forecast, no wind, −3 °C. No excuse.
I did not drive anywhere. This was a back step session: reclining chair on the patio, back to the street lamp, the lamp itself hidden behind the shed. I took the telescope out from habit, put the foam dew shield on it, and then did not use it once. Meteors are a naked-eye business.
| Interval | Meteors | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 22:00–23:00 | 17 | Radiant near Castor, already well up in the east. Several short, quick ones. Limiting magnitude about 4.5 overhead. |
| 23:00–00:00 | 24 | One very bright, yellowish, crossing Orion and breaking into two pieces. Toes cold. |
| 00:00–01:00 | 30 | Best hour. Radiant high in the south-east. Two at once, roughly parallel, just after half past twelve. |
Seventy-one in three hours. From a dark field the rate would have been much higher, but for a suburban garden with a lamp behind the shed it is the best meteor count I have ever had. Geminids are slower than Perseids and noticeably whiter, and a lot of them were bright enough to see through the orange glow low down.
Notes for next December
- The chair gets cold from below, not above. A folded blanket under me did more than a third jumper.
- Pencil works at −3 °C. The biro did not.
- Everything not covered frosted within an hour, including the chair arms and my notebook. The telescope, with its foam shield and hand warmer, stayed clear, which was satisfying and entirely pointless.
- Stop at one in the morning, not at two. The last hour of a cold session is rarely the best hour, it just feels like the most heroic.
The Geminids come from an asteroid, 3200 Phaethon, rather than a comet, which is unusual. I sat with that thought for a while around midnight, then went in and put the kettle on.