Geminids 2020

Outlook for the 2020 Geminids was pretty good, essentially no moon and with the normal peak (λʘ= 262.2) occurring about the time the radiant was rising above the horizon for my timezone (CST). This meant I would be observing after the peak but close enough. Last question was weather: would it be clear?

Sunday December 13th it was clear and should stay that way, off to the Flint Hills for some meteors! I got to Teterville after dark and found the NW wind pretty steady at 10+ mph which was very annoying when temperatures are 24℉. Everything setup I started observing a bit after 20:00 CST.

Meteors were not very numerous at first but not unexpected as the radiant was only about 30° above the horizon. By midnight rates were much better, over 1 Geminid per minute. I had to take warm up beaks every so often as temperatures were about 20º F with 5 – 10 mph wind. Bit chilly. Frost was a serious problem for my cameras and they were knocked out after the first hour unfortunately.

The 2020 Geminid meteor shower turned out great, very nice display with many bright fireball level meteors. The night sky had been clear and magnificent with the winter constellations prominent all night. My total effective time observing was 4 hours and I logged 211 Geminid meteors. The choice of observing location south of Emporia was very fortunate, driving home I ran into thick ground fog north of my location. The sky was completely overcast from Emporia all the way north to Lawrence.