A Gem Of A Night!

As stated earlier Conor and i done a long Geminid watch from 18.00 - 02.30. The sky was poor with murky conds and of course very bright moon light but we did not let it hamper our mood. There was amazing complex cirrus clouds dominating the sky for hours which was in itself a joy to watch. These clouds produced a stunning colourful 22* Moon Halo and at times a bright Upper Tangent Arc that remained visible for hours on end...







and a nice lunar Corona..



We walked to a variety of observing locations to keep us warm as it was very cold with a developing frost. The the clouds moved in for several hours. After a cold long wait and several hot brews later nice clear gaps appeared again. We set up our cameras and started imaging. Conor seen a nice white fireball light up the sky from behind clouds. The gaps improved and a good feeling had crept up on us. During a quiet moments imaging a brillant Mag -4.5 Geminid fireball appeard in the eastern sky, travelled from N to S through Mononceros and Orion. It was a beautiful object with a dazzling aqua blue diamond head with 3 or 4 red flakes falling behind the object which then disintegrated into a train of red 'sparks'. This was one of the most beautiful fireballs i have seen. Then Conor found out that the object crossed his FOV during a 1 min integration. He checked his image...the head was outside the FOV but we could easily see the bright tail on the right hand side of the image!!!!!

We then proceded to a country location on foot...



Overcast conds developed and the temp really dropped. Altogether we seen 28 meteors at this point. Now the activity seemed completely dead. Heres a few shots of us during the watch...









We called it a night at 02.30. I set my alarm for 05.30 and got up to be greeted by a brillant pre-dawn sky. The moon set in the west and the sky was plunged into darkness. Then the heavens let it rip....meteors were comming down everywhere, all of them bright objects that sent my adrenalin pumping. This was bliss, i didnt know were to look. I was amazed by what i was seeing. On 10 occasions a meteor pased though my patrol area but my camera didnt pick any of them up except for one very faint object...



What s show! The session ended at 07.30 when the sky became to bright. There was a lovely festive frost caking the land and i retired feeling a very happy camper. Overall i seen 94 meteors. The maximun is on Tue night but poor weather prospects prompted a watch tonight instead but who knows what will happen tommorow. This was a great night and another fond memory. The Geminids remain my favourite meteor shower!

Clear Skies!

Heres a few of my images including the tail of a great fireball





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Some lovely images there lads! I particularly like the ones of the Lunar Halo and the one woth Orion framed by the clouds, very nice!

I kept an eye on the Lunar Halo myself last night but I never say any tangential arcs despite looking for them.

Bart.

Thanks Bart!

That really was a great halo wasnt it.

My favourite has to be the moon halo/chimney! That one would look great on the front of a Phone book

Great images and endurance lads.
For a second I could imagine that the first image was of the Sun!
It was certainly freezing last night, the dew on the dome was frozen solid last night.
No chance of any meteors here last night, MArs was visible up until around 11pm, when the fog just became too thick, and at around 12.30 the moon was almost gone!