Geminid Watch And Aurora!

I done a great observing session last night. To cut a long story short i watched the stunning Moon and Mars conjunction as they set in the west through distant dark leafless tree branches. The moon illusion was very obvious and they both painted a stunning picture. I obtained 2 not very good images...

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As the sky was suddenly plunged into darkness i was greated by a very faint green diffuse aurora in the NW, it vanished within one minute but i caught it in the act...

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The quiet pre dawn sky felt very festive and special. I observed 60 meteors, 2 of which were Fireballs and one gorgeous Taurid that sported a brillant green diamond head, fizzled out and left a glowing ruby red ion train in its wake for several seconds. All the Geminid meteors were bright and of high quality! I tried to captured one on an imaged but again the 2 that did shoot through my patrol area were to faint.

The ISS blazed across the sky making a relatively close approach to Spica and Jupiter. Images..

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Jupiter itself was a lovely sight in the east. Image...

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I spotted planet Mercury just as the session ended but its proximity to a distant street light ruled out an image. This has been a great precursor to the Geminid maximum. I look forward to Mon and Tue evenings. Conor and i will be doing our annual all night Geminid watch were last year we logged 13 hours and 40 mins without a break, this year we hope to beat this record.

A shot of us during the aurora watch yesterday....

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Clear skies and happy meteor observing!

well done Martin . . . cloudy in Dublin for a while anyway but I didn't check the sky after 9pm. It must have cleared here during the night as I was greeted by cloudless skies when getting up this morning.

I heard recently that the Internation Meteor Organisation are planning to publish a new version of their Handbook (written by Paul Roggemanns a good few years ago) during 2006. A real keeper of a book with a huge amount of info (they updated their star count areas a while back too with a new set published in their journal WGN . . . let me know if you want me photocopy these and I'll send them on with the Irish Times article).

John

I couldnt say no to that John!!

Thankyou very much for that...cheers!

Mery Christmas

Martin, those are tweo lovely shots of the moon and mars! I got a shot myself - what a sight, the moon looked huge :shock: Looks like I was'nt the only one out then

I saw Mercury too, quite bright in the southeast at about 7.30am, after I woke up fuzzy-eyed :lol:

Keith..

Thanks for that Keith

I thought you would be out

Great dedication guys! You're putting this lazy bed lover to shame :oops: But yesterday morning (when rising early to get to Lidl for a cheap scope before work) I saw the beautiful site of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn running east to west along the ecliptic. Breath-taking! I hope the conditions are clear for your session tonight Martin/Conor. I might even brave it myself :shock: but I reckon the full Moon will spoil the fireworks(?)