Geminids 2018

This year the Geminids were fantastic!  The peak of the shower was scheduled for the early morning of Friday, December 14.  I was up from 11pm-12:30am on Thursday night to Friday morning.  I counted 18 separate meteors during this time including a small green bolide that split into 3 additional meteors.

I used an all-sky map to record the observations of the meteors.  This is shown below.

Geminids 2018 - Observation Map

If you look at the observation record you can see that 94% of all recorded meteors radiated from a point just north of Beta Geminorum (Castor).  Just one of the observed meteors was recorded to move in the opposite direction towards the typical Geminid radiant (shown below).

Geminid Radiant

I set myself up in an Adirondack chair in my backyard wearing warm winter attire with my clipboard, red flashlight and watch.  There were narrow cloud bands running west to east travelling through the region of Gemini.  They came and went throughout the entire hour and a half I was outside.  Sometimes the clouds fully encompassed Gemini, Orion, Taurus, or Auriga.  This may have contributed to a lower count throughout the evening.  I complained about this shortly into the evening.

The meteors started off quite slowly and my eyes began to wander to other sights in the sky.

The shower picked up just after midnight with nearly 2/3 of all observed meteors occurring in the last half hour I was out.  More clouds started to roll in and work the next day allowed my bed to beckon to me.

My eyes settled on a sweet spot in the sky between Betelgeuse and Castor's foot (of M35 fame).  This was basically the center of the Winter Hexagon which is becoming more prominent in our cold skies (shown below).  The house blocked a lot of my northern skies but I wasn't too concerned as there was a lot of action in the south.

It was a fun and relaxing evening. The temperature was 3°C and the wind was quite gentle.  I could not really expect better conditions at this time of year.  I am looking forward to the Quadrantid Meteor Shower next month as it occurs a mere 2 days before the New Moon.  If the weather is good I will be out again!