Geminid Meteor Shower 13-15 December 2019

The Geminids are unusual meteor shower in that their parent body is 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid, rather than a comet. It is speculated though that Phaeton is actually a “gassed out” comet, and so the debris that makes up the Geminids may still be cometary particles, but is more likely broken rock fragments from its close approach to the sun.

The Geminids are usually a fairly reliable meteor shower however this year moonlight from the nearly full Moon nearly on top of the radiant  will significantly interfere.

Despite the Geminids having a broad peak and will show good activity well before and after the peak, and on the day before and after. The peak is December 14, between 02h and 23 h UT. That is 13:00pm AEDST December 14 to 9:00 AEDST 15th in Australia.  As the Moon is almost on top of the radiant there will be poor rates but the best viewing will be from around 2-3 am AEDST (1-2 am AEST) on the morning of the 15th in Australia. As the radiant doesn’t rise until just before midnight (daylight saving time) in most of Australia, so you will still have to disturb your sleep for this one.

Northern Australians should see a meteor every 4 to 5  minutes under dark skies in the early morning of the 15th between 1:00 am and 4:00 am local daylight saving time.

It is best if you can find some  object to obscure the Moon so your night vision is not too compromised by the brightness.

You can find predictions for your local site at the meteor flux estimator (choose 4 Geminids and date 14-15 December, don’t forget to change the date to 2019). I have also made a table for major cities below.

Unfortunately, both Chrome and Firefox have changed their security settings to prevent plugins from running, and the flux estimator only runs under Internet Explorer now.
You can follow the progress of the shower at the IMO Geminids Live page.

At 1.00 am in the morning AEDST (midnight, AEST) Castor (alpha Geminorum) is about two hand-spans above the horizon and 10 hand-spans to the right of due north. Pollux, the other twin, is less than a hand-span to the right again. The radiant is just below Pollux.

When you get up, allow at least 5 minutes for your eyes to adjust and become dark adapted (even if you have stumbled out of bed in the dark, here’s some hints on dark adaption of your eyes so you can see meteors better). With the Full Moon almost on top of the radiant this makes dark adaptation very difficult. Again, it is best if you can find some  object like a tree of a post to obscure the Moon so your night vision is not too compromised by the brightness. If the object is a wall this cuts oiut a chunk of the sky so you will see fewer meteors.

Be patient, it may be several minutes before you are rewarded with you first meteor, then a couple will come along in quick succession (a meteor every 4 to 5 minutes is an average, they won’t turn up like a ticking clock but more or less randomly).

Predicted meteor rates for selected towns

Choose a viewing spot where you can see a large swathe of sky without trees or buildings getting in the way (except to block the Moon), or with street lights getting in your eyes. The darker the spot the better (but do be sensible, don’t choose a spot in an insalubrious park for example). While the radiant is where the meteors appear to originate from, most of the meteors will be seen away from the radiant, so don’t fixate on the radiant, but keep your eye on a broad swath of sky roughly centred just above the radiant (as the radiant doesn’t rise very high, looking exactly at the radiant will mean you miss some higher up).

A lawn chair or something similar will make your observing comfortable (or a picnic rug spread on the ground and a nice pillow), and having a Thermos of hot coffee, tea or chocolate to swig while watching will increase your comfort. Despite it being summer, make sure you have a jumper or something as the night can still get cold.

Guides to taking meteor photos are here and here.

As well, Orion and the Hyades will be visible. So it will be a quite nice morning for sky watching. Keep an eye out for satellites! There may be an ISS pass on the mroning of the 15th from your location.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.  
Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/