Observation by Nick James: Geminids
Uploaded by
Nick James
Observer
Nick James
Observed
2025 Dec 14 - 01:05
Uploaded
2025 Dec 14 - 16:13
Objects
Meteor
Planetarium overlay
Constellation
Monoceros
Field centre
RA: 06h32m
Dec: +00°31'
Position angle: -7°23'
Field size
24° × 13°
Equipment
- Sony A7s iii + 85mm, f/1.2 lens
Exposure
Video at 25fps
Location
Chelmsford, UK
Target name
Geminids
Title
Geminids
About this image
Very lucky with the weather here in Chelmsford last night and the Geminids put on a really big show from midnight until dawn this morning. This is a stack of video frames from 01:05:19 to 01:07:50 taken using a Sony A7s iii shooting 4K video at 25fps, ISO12800 with a Canon 85mm, f/1.2L lens at f/1.4. The FoV is around 25x14 deg and the limiting mag for an exposure of 1/25s is around 11. I've started running an analysis if this colour video from the Sony camera. This uses ffmpeg to decode the video and then some of my own software to detected changes. It is only half way through the 340 GiB of video from last night's run but this stack shows the quality of the detections.
My lower resolution RMS cameras have already done their analysis and my single-station totals from last night for each camera broke all records for my site:
Camera GEMs SPOR
UK004D 461 28
UK004E 465 32
UK004F 490 23
UK004G 446 26
UK004H 191 56
UK004J 607 50
That is a grand total of 2199 single-station GEM detections last night! Some 10s RMS stacks show three events. The shower was very active indeed this morning.
Before dawn I also shot some video of the Moon's night-side looking for impact flashes and that is also being analysed at the moment. In addition I imaged 13 comets last night including two fragmenting comets and an interstellar one.
An almost perfect observing night and no need to get up early the next day!
Files associated with this observation
Like this image
Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work.
Reproduction of work by third parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright
holder. By submitting images to this online gallery, you grant the BAA permission to reproduce them in
any
of our publications.