Shane and I returned to Otter Lake the following night to view the post-maximum night. The sky was very clear with excellent transparency, and the temperature low was -24C (-11F) and it felt quite comfortable and not as cold as the previous night. I kept my camera setup simpler this time; no tracking, just fixed camera on tripod aimed to the south-east.
I observed for 3 hours, from 9:30pm to 12:38am. I saw 54 meteors (33 Geminids, 4 anthelions, 4 Monocerotids, 1 Hydrid and 12 sporadics). Geminids hourly rates were only 11, 8 and 14. Certainly a quieter night and well past the maximum. The lulls of inactivity were much longer on this night, including one 17 minutes period going by without any meteors at all.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT: At 9:46pm, an extraordinary sporadic earthgrazer appeared and really WOW’ed us!!! It was first glimpsed all the way up, coming from behind, got gradually brighter as it rocketed towards the south-east, changing colours from green to yellow to blue! It kept going and going for several seconds, easily covering 80+ degrees of the whole sky until we lost sight of it down in the treeline! Man, what a sight!!! Shane and I agreed that this single meteor alone made the trip totally worth it! Luckily, we both had our cameras in the right direction and managed to catch it. Even an ultra wide lens could not even fit the whole path of the meteor in one picture! This is one of those events that happened to be more spectacular to see visually than on a photo. In the image, as you can see here, it’s just a very, very long streak.Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm lens at f2.8:
https://pmartin.smugmug.com/Astronomy/20171213-14-Geminids-Otter-Lake/i-Nc8D2tJ/A
December 14/15 2017, 02:30-05:38 UT (21:30-00:38 EST)
Location: Otter Lake, Quebec, Canada
(Long: -76 deg 23’ 53″; Lat: 45 deg 49’ 45″)
Observed showers:
Anthelion (ANT) – 06:00 (090) +23
Monocerotids (MON) – 06:40 (100) +08
November Orionids (NOO) – 06:52 (103) +15
Geminids (GEM) – 07:20 (110) +33
sigma Hydrids (HYD) – 08:28 (127) +02 (not until third hour)
02:30-03:30 UT; clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.17; LM 6.65; facing S60 deg; teff 1.00 hr; -19C
GEM: eleven: +1(2); +2(3); +3; +4; +5(4)
MON: two: +2; +3
Sporadics: four: -2; +2; +4; +5
Total meteors: Seventeen
03:30-04:30 UT; clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.17; LM 6.65; facing S60 deg; teff 1.00 hr; -21C
GEM: eight: -2; +1(2); +2; +4(2); +5(2)
ANT: three: +3(2); +4
MON: one: +4
Sporadics: two: 0; +2
Total meteors: Fourteen
4:30-05:38 UT; clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.17; LM 6.65; facing S60 deg; teff 1.08 hr; -24C
GEM: fourteen: 0; +1; +2(6); +3(5); +4
ANT: one: +4
MON: one: +3
HYD: one: +3
Sporadics: six: 0; +2; +3(2); +5(2)
Total meteors: Twenty-three
Clear skies,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
