The Geminids of 2007 - Post your observations here

Was just letting the dog out the back garden there and happened to look up just when a very bright geminid streaked through the Plough from the direction of Gemini. Striking blue and quite thick. Not so much a fireball like some perseids I once saw with the glowing smoking trails but a very intense blue streak. Was about the same length as the distance between dubhe and merak in the Plough.

What made it more incredible was that this was through thick haze. I could barely make out Mars at the time through the haze. I can only imagine what this geminid would have looked like in a clear sky.

I was outside in the cold from 8pm Friday til midnight. I caught 22 meteors in total (including 3 really bright blue ones........one passing by the seven sisters and 2 VERY close to Mars). I don't think 22 meteors is a world record for sightings but i was happy enough. It clouded over about 1am so there was nothing more to do after that but go to bed.

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Early part of the night
I had to work last night, but after I parked the car (Tullamore), I took a minute or two to look up. Wifey Dee was with me. I spotted a brilliant blue/white fireball - through the clouds! This was at 23:37hrs in the southwest direction. It is only the second time I have seen a fireball through clouds. Admittedly, the clouds were light, but no stars (even Mars) were to be seen. My guess is that the magnitude was easily above -7 (given that I have seen Venus at magnitude -4.3 before), and visually, it did fizzle slightly as it travelled.

Then in the wee hours
Afterwards, after 02:50hrs, we dropped off her brother and wife at their house, and took some time to look up from their rural location (in the middle of no where, really).

There was plenty of activity, and from our viewpoint for about 15 minutes (after 03:00hrs), I'd say the hourly rate was easily 40 to 50 an hour.

Joe (brother in law) and I saw 2 bright meteors from 2 seperate directions, 3 seconds apart. If the trails were long enough, they would have crossed.

Plenty of bright meteors, and lots of small ones, many of them radiating from the Twins heads'. Seeing conditions were very clear albeit with some mild haze (as seen when looking at Mars and Saturn). Makes me wonder what the Perseids would have been like had it not been raining this year.

Seanie.

Went back out for a second stint from between 00:45 and 01:45 this morning. Sky seemed to be clearer than before - there were clouds around on the horizon but there was a good chunk overhead that was cloud free. Managed to clock up another 42 Geminids, making a total of 69 for the night, plus 2 sporadics. I'd estimate over 80% of the Geminids I saw were brighter than Mars, and a couple were probably brighter than Venus.

So despite needing a new neck now (should have had a sun lounger handy I guess), I'm pretty happy with that.

Saw another 17 in the early hours.
Between 4 & 5 am which is good considering the fast fall off rate
I had a good look at Saturn also.
The rate the rings are closing at is unreal.
It'll be a challenge for any imagers to catch a good cassini division.

All in all the Geminids did us proud this year.
only if the weather had played ball it would have been fab.