17 December 2008

Geminids Experience

It is the day of Geminids. I had a very long, horrible day throughout. The worst day of my entire life had a happy ending with about 5 meteors. Click here to read the experience of my day. Due to various reasons I reached home as late as 11 pm. I went straight to my terrace at around 11:15 only to find most of the sky covered in clouds. I realized that the clouds were moving very fast and within 10 mins they must clear. Just as I thought the sky was cleared in 10 mins making the sky, around Gemini, clear. The Moon was very bright and I was sure to miss out lots of meteors. I positioned myself such that I could see all around Gemini especially the western part of the sky.

11:39 - South-west, 80 deg from the horizon, a short meteor. Not the brightest.

11:48 - This one was a little to the west from zenith (exactly over-head). It was very quick and very short. It was very quick and also being short, it disappeared less than a second.

11:55 - About 60 deg from the northern horizon, moving towards west. It was a little bright and longer than the previous two.

This was when a bunch of clouds came in. Had to wait a long time for it to clear.

12:15 - About 45 deg from the western horizon. It was less bright but it was quick.

12:30 - About 60 deg from south-west horizon. This one was bright and it moved slowly, about the normal speed with all others being too quick.

The long tiring day started to take over me and I realized I almost dozed at the terrace. I decided to get back into the house and sleep. But it was a good experience.

I hope atleast one of my friends had caught one.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

u noted all the time?! lol...the four i saw were pretty fast...and one was very bright! and whts with the degree and all?! :P
i saw all 4 to the east and u to the west..nice! :P

Inchara Prakash said...

that's the prob.. I cant see east since there is another house blocking my view.. Tat's the reason i spotted very few of them..

Harikumar said...

Hey Inc ask them to build a observatory on the top on the mount near my house....

Inchara Prakash said...

If I get enough money in the years to come I'll build one myself :p

Inchara Prakash said...

Its just a mere guess... Horizon is 0 deg and zenith is 90 deg.. Keeping this in mind you can guess the deg..