Best Meteor Shower of the Year tonight

[shafnutz05]

The Geminids, and supposed to be ideal viewing conditions across PA (clear skies, no moon). Peak rates of 100-150 meteors/hour in the darkest spots, best times to view from 9 PM onward as Gemini rises higher and higher in the eastern sky.



http://www.space.com/18887-geminid-meteor-shower-peak-preview.html

Wish this peaked in a couple days when I was at home

[mac5155]

Oooo should be a good time to try to photograph stars with my new DSLR

[Tico Rick]

Thanks for the heads up, shaf!

[shafnutz05]

Thanks for the heads up, shaf!

I'm pretty excited for this one. Even in my relatively heavy light-polluted area 20 miles outside of Philly, I am hoping to see one a minute or so. And Gemini gets very high in the sky since it's a northern constellation.

[Letang Is The Truth]

Which direction is the best to look?

[shafnutz05]

Which direction is the best to look?

Basically, in the direction of Gemini. Because it is such a northern constellation, it rises in the northeast and proceeds quickly towards the near-top of the sky as you get closer to 2 AM. If you are wondering what to look for as far as Gemini is concerned, if you notice a really, really bright planet (brightest object in the sky), that's Jupiter, in Taurus. Look down below that to the left, and you will see Gemini. Most easily identified by Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars.

Make sure you don't focus too much on that exact point, but casually scan the sky in that direction.

[mac5155]

Saw one in the southeast sky about an hour ago, out just watching for some more.

[ILikeTurtles]

Which direction is the best to look?

up

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

Don't you know that you are a shooting star? Don't you know? Don't you know?

[malkinshair]

Perfect night to watch...

I just saw one shooting east to west looking pretty much straight up.
My wife's never seen one...and was looking down when I saw this one. She has declared this meteor shower an 'epic fail' because it's 'too cold' to stay out. Of course, she also considers this to be the precursor to the Mayan end of the world so...

[mac5155]

Lol my fiancee said the same thing and I got sick of listening to her shiver so we came back in, plus my cheapo tripod broke on my camera.

[Pitts]

I've stepped outside 3 ties tonight and each tie I've seen a handful of shooting starts. Definitely good action going on!

[Ad@m]

Saw approximately 50 in a half hour. On two different occasions I saw 3 in a 5 second span.

[shafnutz05]

Even in my light polluted area I've seen a half dozen in 15 minutes. Awesome!

[mac5155]

Just saw like 3 within 30 seconds.

[DudeMan2766]

I just walked outside. Pretty clear night but got nothin

[MRandall25]

Didn't see any meteors, but I keep seeing a bunch of weird, distant, almost flashing lights moving around in one area (not a plane because otherwise it would be moving from one side to the other).

[PensFanInDC]

Which direction is the best to look?

up

Legit LOL. Good play bro...

[DMcGrew]

Saw a bunch of meteors tonight. I was taking pics the last 20 mins. I know I got one pretty bright one and a bunch of faint ones. Downloading the pics to my computer right now.

[OutofFoil]

Didn't see any meteors, but I keep seeing a bunch of weird, distant, almost flashing lights moving around in one area (not a plane because otherwise it would be moving from one side to the other).

Paging Doc...

[DMcGrew]

Took about 30 pics.. only two of them you could actually see the meteors. The others were extremely faint. Here are the two good ones..

This one has 2 meteors. The one at the top right is obvious but there is another one on the bottom just above the horizon and slightly to the right of the one of the top of the pic. It is very faint.

Geminid Meteor Shower by Dustin McGrew[/size]

And this one is obvious

Geminid Meteor Shower by Dustin McGrew[/size]

[shafnutz05]

Awesome pic! Yeah, if you take enough exposure pics, you are bound to capture one

[DMcGrew]

Awesome pic! Yeah, if you take enough exposure pics, you are bound to capture one

Yep I was just firing 30 sec exposures constantly. I need to get a new cable shutter release so I can do bulb exposure with a lower ISO. These settings worked out pretty good though.

[eddysnake]

thanks for the heads up, did anyone see that one right around 10:04PM, man what a nice one. Really incredible night for this, I hope to see some more tonight. thanks again shaf

[mac5155]

Awesome pix, i tried just doing some 15 second exposures with a standard 18/55 lens but didnt have much luck, they could only go down to f/3.5 which probably isnt low enough. I'm a beginner though. There was too much light around my neighborhood too, and I didnt feel like driving out to the country.