The Geminid meteor shower has a predicted peak of 60-100 meterors per hour on Monday evening. Sunday evening is predicted to hit 25-50% of the peak rate and the Tuesday is predicted to hit 25% of the peak rate or about 15 to 25 per hour. There are always surprise years that have more or less than the predicted output, and showers sometimes arrive a day early or a day late.
If this shower was in the summer (not so cold) it would likely be the years favorite.
This shower occurs much earlier in the evening than the showers that hit their best in the wee hours of early morning.
The radiant point (place in the sky the meteors appear to come from) rises early in the evening, so the meteors are ordinarily visible any time after 7 pm in the northeast sky. This year the moon is out, so viewing will be better after 10 pm as the moon gets lower and sets.
For best viewing and photography, dark skys are best. You certainly don't want most of the city lights to be northeast of you. Even in the city, some of the meteors will be visible but the city lights will turn the sky green on your film.
To take pictures, load you camera with high speed film. Slide film is best if you can't print your own negatives. Night sky photos are hard for most commercial printers to handle. Get some Kodak E200, or Kodak Elite Chrome 200 and set your camera for a film speed of 640. When you finish the roll, ask for "PUSH 2" processing when you get your film developed.
A fast, single focal length lens is best like a 24mm or 28mm f/2.8 or a 50mm f/1.8. Set you 24mm or 28mm lens at f/2.8 and your 50mm lens at f/ 2 or f/2.8 and set your camera shutter on BULB. If you only have a zoom lens, use the widest aperture and zoom to somewhere between 24mm and 50mm in focal length. Manually focus your lens at infinity. Use a very bright star, the moon, or some object on the distant horizon. Put your camera on a tripod (or bean bag) and point it up at the northeastern sky. Lock the shutter open and wait. Depending on how dark the sky is (how close you are to the city) you can lock the shutter open anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. With really dark skys, you can take exposures that run several hours.
The stars will appear as curved streaks across the sky, the longer the exposure, the longer the streaks. The meteors will be straight streaks across the sky.
If you are out in the country, you can try silhouetting a windmill or tree against the northeastern sky. If you feel really creative, try painting the windmill or tree with flash or flashlight.
Dress really warm and take a thermos of hot tea or chocolate.
Good shooting! Take a great photo and I will post it on this page with a credit!
Added December 11, 1999
