First got to thank NASA for their amazing work, and the information from their website. Now, we had some fun watching the coolest meteor shower of the year, I got the information of the event from the post that NASA shared on google+. I've always wanted to see one of these spectacles, but always got caught with something, or the skies that night provided poor visibility. This time we planned right, got my friend Justin to borrow his dad's car and called my friend Jonathan to help find a suitable place to watch here in Pune, we thought we might be able to get a view near the airforce base in Lohegaon but it was just too bright. The meteor shower was supposed to peak on the 13th and 14th of December we missed out on the 13th but witnessed this awesome stellar show on the 14th night, more than a 100 meteors every hour!! I was running out of wishes to make!
Here is some information about the geminids, got this information from NASA
Fast Facts
 |
| from 2012 geminid meteor shower courtesy earth and sky website. |
- Origin: 3200 Phaethon (an asteroid or a possible "rock comet")
- Radiant: constellation Gemini
- Active: 4-17 Dec. 2014
- Peak Activity: 13-14 Dec. 2014
- Peak Activity Meteor Count: Approximately 120 meteors per hour
- Meteor Velocity: 35 km (22 miles) per second ( the fastest man made object is the VOYAGER space craft travelling at 11 miles per second!)
The Geminids, which peak during mid-December each year, are considered to be one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers. The Geminids did not start out that way. The Geminids first began appearing in the mid-1800s. However, the first showers were not noteworthy with only 10 - 20 meteors seen per hour. Since that time, the Geminids have grown to become one of the most major showers of the year. During its peak, 120 Geminid meteors can be seen per hour.
The Geminids are bright and fast meteors and tend to be yellow in color. Geminids are also known for their fireball meteors. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak. This is due to the fact that fireballs originate from larger particles of material. Fireballs are also brighter, with magnitudes brighter than -3.
The night of December 14th we left for Lions point at Lonavalla which is 72Km out toward Mumbai, it is easily accessible by the expressway and should take less than an hour to get their. Lions point is perfect for star gazing, there is no lighting except natural lighting for miles. We reached at around 2100hrs had dinner and went to the viewing spot. The car had everything to make us comfortable a Maruthi Suzuki Ertiga is a great car. We had packed our cameras sleeping bags and some water, that night was pretty cold the temperature had dipped 7 degrees celsius in 24hrs to a nice chill 10 degrees celsius. Our photography skills were not good enough to capture a streaking meteor, but in our defence those meteors were really hard to catch on camera, and there was a third quarter moon which caused a little damping of the view, got some photographs below, have fun!
 |
| from left to right: Justin, Me, Jonathan |
The Geminids, which peak during mid-December each year, are considered to be one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers. The Geminids did not start out that way. The Geminids first began appearing in the mid-1800s. However, the first showers were not noteworthy with only 10 - 20 meteors seen per hour. Since that time, the Geminids have grown to become one of the most major showers of the year. During its peak, 120 Geminid meteors can be seen per hour.
The Geminids are bright and fast meteors and tend to be yellow in color. Geminids are also known for their fireball meteors. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak. This is due to the fact that fireballs originate from larger particles of material. Fireballs are also brighter, with magnitudes brighter than -3.
No comments:
Post a Comment