nice! we were socked in, very dissappointing same with the comet what's going on in the audio, bong use?
Geminid shower is debris field from (rocky) comet 3200 Phaethon that still hangs together pretty much. Phaethon made a respectably close earth pass in 2017 but it is elsewhere at present.
true, we're up about 20 degrees. still, i would gladly pay for some sunshine. (notice i didn't bite on the silver lining setup)
Best meteor views I've had were about 2002 in Mojave desert (cloudless you betcha). One-to-10 mm bits were arriving and incandescing with great frequency. I believe I saw some 'skipping off' and re entering, but this is said to be rare. Source comets are now known for all major showers, and Geminids' Phaethon may have been among the most recently identified.
Back at my native dark sky location tonight, I'm watching tonight, because the weather deteriorates tomorrow night. But observing is not good tonight either. While Orion was rising nicely on the horizon when I was on the road 30 miles away, thin chunky overcast dominates here, strongly backlit by the nearby quarter moon. Watching holes drift by, averted vision is very obviously picking up something not drifting, but it seems roughly a degree or so left of the comet position marked in this link: http://spaceweather.com/images2018/15dec18/skymap.png?PHPSESSID=gsf8h7j4fb4goonrm61kq2jnv3 But since the finder image clearly shows the 'tail' not pointing away from the actual line to the sun, I'm hoping that maybe I'm seeing it (or the coma) off in a different direction, and that something is funky with the timestamp (with undetermined timezone, hopefully far east of me). For folks looking on Sunday, here is another dated finder chart: http://spaceweather.com/images2018/16dec18/skymap.png?PHPSESSID=gsf8h7j4fb4goonrm61kq2jnv3
GOT IT! Though my view of it was quite pathetic, with thin overcast interference. But with binoculars, there is obviously a slightly bright patch, as large as the Pleiades, that didn't move along with the overcast, located by the purple marker here: The patch I spotter earlier by naked eye turned out to be the patch of stars circled in red, not the comet. To regenerate the above chart, with a real time mark updated for when you are or will be actually observing, try here: Custom object-finder charts: 46P/Wirtanen - In-The-Sky.org
Four hours later last night, saw it again briefly, obviously moved a bit. Clouds had mostly vanished but I didn't stay out long enough to get well dark adapted. Tonight, worse overall weather conditions but a nice wide cloud hole when I checked minutes ago. And there it was again, clearly moved since last night. Red marks are my reference stars in locating it: With 6x42 binocs and my early senior eyes, it is just a faint fuzzy patch, not quite as large (nor anywhere near as bright) as the adjacent Pleiades. Exciting to a certain narrow crowd, but a serious dud for most of the general public. Astrophotographers will do far better.
