GEMINIDS 2009 OBSERVING REPORT
On the night of 13th December I went to a village named Dhosa the regular place for stargazing. We went there to observe the Geminids meteor shower. I went with Ashwin Vaghela and another member Yogesh. Like the Leonids, this year's Geminids was also predicted to be best and stronger than usual. We left for the observing site at 10:00pm and got there at 10:40pm. The village is only 15 kms from Bhuj but due to bad roads it takes more time to reach! We were on bikes and on the way we saw 4 meteors. Here is the brief detail of our observation....
ON THE WAY: 4 meteors. The first was as bright as Capella. Thus it was at magnitude 0.
11pm-12am: Throughout the first session we counted 14 meteors. A couple of them was 0 magnitude.
12am-1am: We counted 50 meteors. The brightest was a fireball of magnitude -2. Once I was looking at the Double Cluster in Perseus through my 25x100 Binocular and then one bright meteor passed through the starry studded field! It was amazing!
1am-2am: We counted 74 meteors. The brightest was a fireball of mag. -2.5 passed through the zenith at 1:12am. It was slow with short trail.
2am-3am: Again we counted 74 meteors. At 2:40am we saw a bright fireball of mag. -4.
3am-4am: In the last session we counted 83 meteors. After the end of this session I gave up observing and counting meteors and did visual comet hunting through the 25x100 binoculars. I guess the number of meteors increased after 4am until the beginning of morning twilight. During comet hunting I saw 5 meteors passed through the eyepieces. Whenever I shifted my glance at the sky I saw 1 or 2 meteors every time. I added 6 more meteors in my count. So our total number was 310.
Overall the Geminids 2009 was the best meteor shower in my life. I observed this meteor shower in the year 2004 and counted 241 meteors but this time my total number was 310.
ON THE WAY: 4 meteors. The first was as bright as Capella. Thus it was at magnitude 0.
11pm-12am: Throughout the first session we counted 14 meteors. A couple of them was 0 magnitude.
12am-1am: We counted 50 meteors. The brightest was a fireball of magnitude -2. Once I was looking at the Double Cluster in Perseus through my 25x100 Binocular and then one bright meteor passed through the starry studded field! It was amazing!
1am-2am: We counted 74 meteors. The brightest was a fireball of mag. -2.5 passed through the zenith at 1:12am. It was slow with short trail.
2am-3am: Again we counted 74 meteors. At 2:40am we saw a bright fireball of mag. -4.
3am-4am: In the last session we counted 83 meteors. After the end of this session I gave up observing and counting meteors and did visual comet hunting through the 25x100 binoculars. I guess the number of meteors increased after 4am until the beginning of morning twilight. During comet hunting I saw 5 meteors passed through the eyepieces. Whenever I shifted my glance at the sky I saw 1 or 2 meteors every time. I added 6 more meteors in my count. So our total number was 310.
Overall the Geminids 2009 was the best meteor shower in my life. I observed this meteor shower in the year 2004 and counted 241 meteors but this time my total number was 310.
-Rahul Zota
(Kutch Amateur Astronomer's Club-Bhuj)
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waiting 4 ur reply
Ramann