Geminid meteors Fri and Sat -- head for the boonies!

Yes -- the peak is almost always on the night of December 13-14 (might be different in a leap year). There are several good astronomy sites on the Web that give accurate predictions for each of the annual meteor showers, like the Perseids, the Leonids, and the Geminids.

You are lucky to live in a dark rural area -- it would take me three hours of driving to get to a really dark camping site.

We sat in the back yard; we live in a mostly rural area, moon wasn't up yet. It was awesome... Had never seen so many in one sitting.

Does this one happen every year?

This Atlas rocket was the most powerful ever to be launched from Vandenburg. It could be seen from all over socal. Some of my designs were in the Titan and Delta rockets.

profdant139 wrote:
Gee, Salvo, is that possible? RDWIII was on the Bradshaw Trail, which (I think) is almost 400 miles from Vandenberg.

I have seen a meteor that looked a lot like a rocket -- except that it was descending, not ascending! This was on Nov. 22 of this year at around 7:20 pm, coincidentally. Many other folks on the West Coast saw it and reported it.

It's called Atmospheric Refraction. In the early '70s my girlfriend's father was the senior NCO for the Titan II wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson. The missile sites surrounded Tucson. We went to the HS graduation of my GF's brother at the HS stadium. At about sunset, we saw a launch roughly NW of Tucson. I thought that her father would have a heart attack because he thought one of his sites had launched. He was a BIG guy and, looking for a phone, he ran faster than anyone who ever played on that field. It turned out that it was a launch at Vandenberg AFB nearly 600 miles away.

LS

profdant139 wrote:
Gee, Salvo, is that possible? RDWIII was on the Bradshaw Trail, which (I think) is almost 400 miles from Vandenberg.

I have seen a meteor that looked a lot like a rocket -- except that it was descending, not ascending! This was on Nov. 22 of this year at around 7:20 pm, coincidentally. Many other folks on the West Coast saw it and reported it.

He could be right,12 0r 13 years ago saw one while camped below Ehrenburg on the Colorado river.
this one was at dusk and could also see the contrail which looked red with the sun reflecting

Gee, Salvo, is that possible? RDWIII was on the Bradshaw Trail, which (I think) is almost 400 miles from Vandenberg.

I have seen a meteor that looked a lot like a rocket -- except that it was descending, not ascending! This was on Nov. 22 of this year at around 7:20 pm, coincidentally. Many other folks on the West Coast saw it and reported it.

Salvo wrote:
That must have been around 7:20. You saw the Atlas rocket, launched from Vandenburg. It looked like a huge comet from Santa Barbara. Very spectacular.

Yeah ... those launches are pretty spectacular.

When in the AF I was flown to Vandenburg and privileged to see a Minuteman launch right up close from a military personnel viewing area. Really impressive.

Nothing like being out in the middle of nowhere with your RV and observing the night sky, though. :C

That must have been around 7:20. You saw the Atlas rocket, launched from Vandenburg. It looked like a huge comet from Santa Barbara. Very spectacular.

RWDIII wrote:
Anyway right after dark saw the biggest meteor I have ever seen.
one of the guys around the fire said look,its a comet.It didn't have a tail,but
it looked like flames or
gas was coming out in front of it.It looked like a ball inside a v.

Anza Borrego is high on our list for next December, as is Death Valley and Joshua Tree. A few years ago, we went to Death Valley for this same meteor shower and got an inch of rain instead -- a year's worth of precipitation. Interesting, but no meteors.

And one year, we went to Anza for the Leonids in November and it was totally cloudy. That's the way it goes.

profdant139 wrote:
I saw eight meteors in 20 minutes at 1 am light-polluted, hazy Orange County, with a big fat moon in the sky -- I can only imagine what that meteor shower looked liked in a good location! Next year, there is no moon for the Geminids on DEc. 13 -- it's time to start planning a camping trip for next winter. Someplace warm, dark, and clear . . . .

I know a great place about 50 miles from Q
you need 4wd,and should have at least 2 or 3 rigs incase someone gets stuck.
Another great place would be the primitive campground at split mt in the Anza Borrego area