Algol Loc: Georgia

Was out all night long trying my best to catch some of the Geminid Meteors. Method: Taking 5 second exposures at ISO 3100, F/3.5. Images taken back to back with a 2 second delay between exposures. Results: 5,864 images, 45 meteors captured (43 Geminids, 2 Sporadic), 21 satellites (still have to ID them), and numerous aircraft as I live on the direct approach to Atlanta-Hartsfield Intl Airport (worlds busiest).
In the first image I captured my first Geminid early at 7:04 PM. Appropriately it appears against the background of one of my telescopes. The meteor was going straight up from the horizon as the constellation Gemini had not risen yet. The meteor had to curve around the earth due to earth's gravity and enter the atmosphere, hence the long trail and the appearance of it going upward.
In the second image is my last meteor of the night. I imaged it just before dawn (you can see the sky is much brighter), at 6:39 AM.
The third image is a combined shot to reveal about half of the meteors I captured. The remainder were out of the field of view of this image. I moved the camera and shot various areas of the sky but this image is centered on Gemini and you can see how they appear to radiate from one part of the sky.
The fourth image is a copy of the third but had all the meteors trails extended back to shoe the area that they appear to radiate from. I also superposed and image of the Twins from Johann Bode's Uranometria atlas of 1801. The twins appear to be standing on their heads.

First Geminid

(Download)

Last Geminid

(Download)

Composite Geminid Shower

(Download)

Radiant and Bode's Gemini

(Download)

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Nicely illustrated.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

very nicely done :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Algol Loc: Georgia

Thank you as always Nikonian72, I'm trying to identify the satellite that appears at roughly the 8 o'clock position from the meteor trail in photo "Last Geminid". No luck so far but I'll keep trying. I checked and this satellite appears in 20 frames moving from bottom.

Algol Loc: Georgia

Thank you dirtpusher, I appreciate it very much. Check out my answer to Nikonian72 about the satellite trail that appears in "Last Geminid" photo.

skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA

You must have an abundance of patience! The third image is incredible. Thanks.

Algol Loc: Georgia

Thank you skylane5sp for the nice comment. When it comes to manually stacking images of this nature, one has to have the patience of an oyster, lol.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Results: 5,864 images, 45 meteors captured (43 Geminids, 2 Sporadic), 21 satellites (still have to ID them), and numerous aircraft as I live on the direct approach to Atlanta-Hartsfield Intl Airport (worlds busiest).

This is Outstanding and informative as usual.
Thank you Algol
Craig

Algol Loc: Georgia

Thank you CraigFair, I'm toying with the idea of making a composite view at night with the colorful aircraft lights, might be interesting.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

That sounds really 'cool' as I would have said 40 yrs ago.
Keep'em coming, always enjoy your work.
Craig

jkoar Loc: The Gunks, NY

Well done ... enjoyed your commentary.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Your combined shot is very nicely done.
Your first shot looks like a satellite to me, no flaring and its awfully long for meteor but its really long for a 5 second shot as well...
Nice shots.
I of course was fully clouded in all weekend but we did get rain and snow out of it.

Algol Loc: Georgia

I thought it might be a satellite, but it tapers toward the top and it plots back to the Geminid Radiant point and if it was a satellite and it was present during the full 5 seconds it would have been awfully fast and very, very low orbit. So given all the data, it looks as if it was a Geminid.

Algol Loc: Georgia

Thank you jkoar, I appreciate it very much.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

I agree and tried to say that but missed the mark by a mile.
Sorry for the confusion.
;)