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Community photo entitled  by Brian Mollenkopf on 12/14/2021 at Lancaster, OH

On 12/14/2021 05:00 am by Brian Mollenkopf| Lancaster, OH

The Geminids Above My House

Phenomenal morning today!

I woke up at 2:45 AM to view and photograph the Geminids Meteor Shower. I missed it last year due to weather with the low cloud ceiling. This year I had a bit of high wispy clouds but overall a mostly clear sky. No sooner than taking two steps off the porch I see the meteors raining down all around the sky. One was so bright and orange I could see it through the trees. I got about ¾ of the way to my first camera location and two bobcats, about 0.5 mi away, start barking at each other in the valley to the SE of the farm. A bit of a scary sound in the dark! This goes one for about 15 minutes and, of course, stops when I decide to go get my phone to try to record the sounds.
Anyway, I sat outside and watched the meteors until about 4:30 AM. I got too cold just sitting there not moving around. They were brilliantly. They were green, orange, red, and, white. Sometime 2-3 at once then others time just one - some had long streaks and others very shot streaks. They came at a rate at about 2 every 5 minutes. I even got to see one break apart while travelling through the Earth's atmosphere. They were everywhere in the morning sky, horizon to horizon East to West and horizon to horizon North to South. The best part, it was quiet enough that I heard one of the meteors. It sounded like a cross between distant thunder and local thunder with the volume on 1. That was totally cool!
Other noise to note were a pack coyotes way off to the NE and a single coyote off to the SW.
I’m heading out now to stop the cameras and begin image review. I hope to have some good images later today,

Composite of the meteors