Geminid meteor shower

Geminids clouded out in Athens.

We (SAC) saw quite a few meteors from the Burren site last night. At some times there were several a minute. Some of them were quite bright-easily visiblefrom inside the car on the way home.
A very sudden onset of fog at 10.30pm put an end to observing at the dolmen site : angry: A beautiful but cold night up to that point.

Several a min turned into several every few seconds later on at one stage!
I left it late so as to see the maximun around 5am and on the way
Got the bad news from the guys so I checked out our 2nd observing
Spot by Corofin lake and it was totally clear!
I stood for around 20 min and in that time counted
24 - 2 of which were horizon skimmers and were
Brilliant.
The numbers steadly increased as the night went on.
By the time Dave arrived I had lost count as
I was setting up my gear.
So well wrapped up on my lounger with
camera tracking and clicking away we watched the show
Until 3:30.
This was the best meteor shower I've ever seen!
We didnt take count but at one stage I saw
EIGHT in a row. All bright.
They definatly came in 'sets' but were also
All over the sky.
It didnt seem to matter where you looked
After a few seconds youd see one or two.

Standouts were 3 long slow green meteors
That entered about 20deg above the horizon and
Travelled away in perspective burning out just over the horizon
Gave a very 3d effect.
Two very bright standouts one through
Gemini itself into Orion ( followed by 2 more less bright in quick succession)
Then one in Perseus.
I couldnt even guess at numbers,
Suffice to say, A Lot!
Fog closed us out at the end, if the numbers had
Increased as predicted, and they definatly were,
Maximum must have been amazing.

Btw.
5 hours of photos - I cought one!
Ah well.

Hi guys
To round off the weekend I have compiled a montage of three nights of video meteor monitoring for both north and west cameras, although cloud interfered now and again on the last two nights I am happy overall with the results. I dedicate these images to our intrepid SAC members.

West Cam: farm3.static.flickr.com/2497/4183952905_e1b08d74ae_o.jpg
North Cam: farm3.static.flickr.com/2782/4183952901_2781cdd380_o.jpg

Clear skies
Mike

Very impressive Mike, thanks for sharing

I took about 2 hours of photos this morning from Wicklow, quite a bit of cloud and but only captured a few meteors. The best was at about 6am and was very bright just below Caster and Pollux. I have uploaded this on to Flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/71873349@N00/4184873164/?edited=1

Martin