Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote:Geminid Meteor Shower over Dashanbao Wetlands[/url]

Explanation: The annual Geminid meteor shower is raining down on planet Earth this week. ... Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

geckzilla wrote:Congrats on finally getting an APOD, Jeff. I've been enjoying your work over at Flickr for a while now. By the way, anyone who doesn't go look at the rest of it is missing out.

Chris Peterson wrote: 156 Geminids over the last three nights.

Not[e] in the image are all these, as well:

Puppid-Velid 7
Monocerotid 20
chi Orionid 6
sigma Hydrid 15
46P 10
Sporadic 40
Unknown 72 (too short to determine radiant)

The 46P meteors are interesting- a new shower with no name yet, having its radiant in Pisces and created by debris from Comet 46P/Wirtanen.

I've got an activity plot and some fireball videos posted on my report page.

Nitpicker wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote: 156 Geminids over the last three nights.

Not[e] in the image are all these, as well:

Puppid-Velid 7
Monocerotid 20
chi Orionid 6
sigma Hydrid 15
46P 10
Sporadic 40
Unknown 72 (too short to determine radiant)

The 46P meteors are interesting- a new shower with no name yet, having its radiant in Pisces and created by debris from Comet 46P/Wirtanen.

I've got an activity plot and some fireball videos posted on my report page.

Very impressive Chris. I made my first every vaguely-well-thought-out attempt to capture some Geminids last night. Mainly got cloud I'm afraid.

Chris Peterson wrote:

2013-Geminids-(fiiltered).jpg

156 Geminids over the last three nights.

Not in the image are all these, as well:

Puppid-Velid 7
Monocerotid 20
chi Orionid 6
sigma Hydrid 15
46P 10
Sporadic 40
Unknown 72 (too short to determine radiant)

The 46P meteors are interesting- a new shower with no name yet, having its radiant in Pisces and created by debris from Comet 46P/Wirtanen.

I've got an activity plot and some fireball videos posted on my report page.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:Thanks Chris, it looks like it's been an active year for Geminids. Did you catch any Andromedids earlier this week?

• Andromedid 5
  Puppid-Velid 7
  Monocerotid 18
  chi Orionid 5
  sigma Hydrid 15
  Geminid 156
  46P 9
  Sporadic 39
  Unknown 72

• Andromedid 9
  December Phoenicid 2
  Puppid-Velid 10
  Monocerotid 26
  chi Orionid 6
  sigma Hydrid 28
  Geminid 162
  46P 9
  Sporadic 64
  Unknown 88

The World At Night (TWAN) is a program to create and exhibit a collection of stunning landscape astrophotographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s most beautiful and historic sites against a nighttime backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events. TWAN is a bridge between art, humanity, and science. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above all the landmarks and symbols of different nations and regions, attesting to the truly unified nature of Earth as a planet rather than an amalgam of human-designated territories. Those involved in global programs learn to see humanity as a family living together on a single planet amidst the vast ocean of our Universe. This global perspective motivates us to work for a better, more peaceful planet for all the world’s inhabitants. Astronomers Without Borders was created to work toward this goal. TWAN is an innovative new approach to expanding this global perspective.
…
Wars are fought over boundaries that have been created in the name of politics, religion, race or beliefs. But the view from space reveals the true nature of our cosmic home – a border-less planet divided only into land and sea. While few will experience that view first-hand, the same is also true in reverse; the night sky above us – a view that is accessible to everyone on the planet – also has no visible borders. This common view is a bridge that connects us, creating understanding and friendship. When borders vanish, political and cultural differences become irrelevant. The beauty of brilliant Venus might be seen in Texas just hours after it is seen by sky gazers in Tehran. The famous stars of the Big Dipper might be viewed over the Vatican while Buddhists in China share the same celestial view over their temples. The magnificent Milky Way might be viewed over the Grand Canyon while people in Nepal are awed by the same celestial view over the Himalaya. We all live under the same eternally peaceful sky. And the Earth we inhabit under it belongs to us all.

georgeliv wrote:The apod image of Jupiter in Taurus is almost certainly from 2011.
2012 was my 35th year of following Jupiter; going though nearly exactly 3 orbits back in the feet of Gemini.

georgeliv wrote:The apod image of Jupiter in Taurus is almost certainly from 2011.
2012 was my 35th year of following Jupiter; going though nearly exactly 3 orbits back in the feet of Gemini.

geckzilla wrote:Congrats on finally getting an APOD, Jeff. I've been enjoying your work over at Flickr for a while now. By the way, anyone who doesn't go look at the rest of it is missing out.

BDanielMayfield wrote:Ok, this is the second point that I wanted to say this morning. The discussion link to the place where today’s image was recorded; the "Dashanbao Wetlands in central China." shows an equally impressive night sky shot from about the same location on the TWAN website. TWAN photographers are often featured here, but until today I hadn’t been on their site and I hadn’t even learned what the acronym meant.

So today in addition to learning about the how similar comets and asteroids can be I learned that TWAN stands for "The World At Night". The goals of this undertaking are laudable. From their website in the “About TWAN” page I quote:

The World At Night (TWAN) is a program to create and exhibit a collection of stunning landscape astrophotographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s most beautiful and historic sites against a nighttime backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events. TWAN is a bridge between art, humanity, and science. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above all the landmarks and symbols of different nations and regions, attesting to the truly unified nature of Earth as a planet rather than an amalgam of human-designated territories. Those involved in global programs learn to see humanity as a family living together on a single planet amidst the vast ocean of our Universe. This global perspective motivates us to work for a better, more peaceful planet for all the world’s inhabitants. Astronomers Without Borders was created to work toward this goal. TWAN is an innovative new approach to expanding this global perspective.
…
Wars are fought over boundaries that have been created in the name of politics, religion, race or beliefs. But the view from space reveals the true nature of our cosmic home – a border-less planet divided only into land and sea. While few will experience that view first-hand, the same is also true in reverse; the night sky above us – a view that is accessible to everyone on the planet – also has no visible borders. This common view is a bridge that connects us, creating understanding and friendship. When borders vanish, political and cultural differences become irrelevant. The beauty of brilliant Venus might be seen in Texas just hours after it is seen by sky gazers in Tehran. The famous stars of the Big Dipper might be viewed over the Vatican while Buddhists in China share the same celestial view over their temples. The magnificent Milky Way might be viewed over the Grand Canyon while people in Nepal are awed by the same celestial view over the Himalaya. We all live under the same eternally peaceful sky. And the Earth we inhabit under it belongs to us all.

I enjoyed learning what TWAN was all about. Previously I recall some grousing by other prospective APOD contributors about the frequency of TWAN photographers’ images being included here. The origin and purpose of this group makes their frequent inclusion both understandable and very appropriate.

geckzilla wrote:Hehe, hi Jeff!

Geminid watching: I just stood at the second story east window of my house and stared at Jupiter for half an hour just to find out if I could spot Geminids under horrible conditions. I live in Queens, NYC, the sky is covered in cirrus, and there are orange street lamps I was able to occlude by awkwardly slouching at the window to put a bar in front of them. At about 21:10 (I didn't think to mark the time exactly) I saw a nice, bright streak emanating from Gemini. Bam! If I can spot one, I think just about anyone can, clouds aside.

Chris Peterson wrote:No, I mean NOT in the image. The composite is just the 156 Geminids. The others were recorded and added to the meteor database, but not this image.

geckzilla wrote: Geminid watching: I just stood at the second story east window of my house and stared at Jupiter for half an hour just to find out if I could spot Geminids under horrible conditions. I live in Queens,

Bam! If I can spot one, I think just about anyone can, clouds aside.