Geminid Meteor Bathe 13-15 December 2023

The northern horizon at 3:13 am ACDST as seen from Adelaide on Friday December 15 when the Geminid radiant is at its highest. The Geminid radiant is marked with a starburst. Comparable views can be seen elsewhere in Australia at  the same latitude and the equal native time. (click on to embiggen).	The northern horizon at 2:13am AEST as seen from Brisbane on on Friday December 15 when the Geminid radiant is at its highest. The Geminid radiant is marked with a starburst. Comparable views can be seen elsewhere in Australia at  the same latitude and the equal native time. (click on to embiggen).	The northern horizon at 3:17 am AEDST as seen from Melbourne on Friday December 15 when the Geminid radiant is at its highest. The Geminid radiant is marked with a starburst. Comparable views can be seen elsewhere in Australia at  the same latitude and the equal native time. (click on to embiggen).

This 12 months is an efficient 12 months for the Geminid meteor bathe. The Geminids are
uncommon meteor bathe in that their mum or dad physique is 3200 Phaethon,
an asteroid, somewhat than a comet. It’s speculated although that Phaeton
is definitely a “gassed out” comet, and so the particles that makes up the
Geminids should be cometary particles, however is extra seemingly damaged rock
fragments from its shut method to the solar.

The Geminids are normally a reasonably dependable meteor bathe and this 12 months guarantees to be one as there can be no interference from the Moon.

The Geminids have a broad peak and usually present good exercise
nicely earlier than and after the height on
the day earlier than and after. The nominal peak is December 14, 19h UT, which means in Australia this 12 months a lot of the exercise is focused on the morning of the fifteenth. Sure, it is week day, nevertheless it’s a Friday, so you’ll be able to afford to lose a bit of sleep.  Because the radiant would not rise till simply
earlier than midnight (daylight saving time) in most of Australia and the radiant is highest (with one of the best meteor charges) within the early hours you’ll lose some sleep for this. 

Northern Australians ought to see a meteor each 1 to 2 minutes below
darkish skies within the early morning of the fifteenth between roughly midnight (14th) and three:00 am
native time (fifteenth). Clearly below suburban skies you will note fewer.

You may
discover predictions to your native website at the meteor flux estimator
(select 4 Geminids and date 14-15 December, remember to alter the
date to 2023). You’ll have to enter your native latitude and longitude
to your website. I’ve additionally made a desk for main cities beneath.

Sadly, each Chrome and Firefox have modified their safety
settings to forestall plugins from operating, and the flux estimator solely
runs below Web Explorer now OR Edge in Web Explorer mode (click on on the triple dots one the web page has loaded ), you need to have the JAVA plugh-in loaded

.
You may observe the progress of the bathe on the IMO Geminids Live page.

At 1.00 am within the morning AEDST (midnight, AEST) Castor (alpha
Geminorum) is about three hand-spans above the horizon and roughly north-east. Pollux, the opposite twin, is lower than a hand-span to the
proper once more. The radiant is slightly below Pollux. The most effective charges is when the radiant is highest,when it’s due north. 

If you rise up, permit at least 5
minutes to your eyes to regulate and turn into darkish tailored (even should you
have stumbled away from bed in the dead of night, this is some hints on darkish adaption of your eyes so you’ll be able to see meteors higher). 

Select a viewing spot the place you’ll be able to see a big swathe of sky with out
timber or buildings getting in the way in which, or
with avenue lights getting in your eyes. The darker the spot the higher
(however
do be smart, do not select a spot in an insalubrious park for
instance). 

Labels: geminids, Meteors, unaided eye

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:09 pm