Geminids Meteor Shower

Friends, here's just what you may have been looking for.... a chance to leave behind work, politics, the kids, your problems, jury duty (I did mine this week) and holiday overload!

A star party!

Late in the evening on Wednesday, December 13th, the Geminid meteor shower will make its yearly appearance to us earthlings, human and otherwise. In any given year, the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December are generally the best meteor showers of the year. (You may recall hearing about the Leonids reaching meteor storm proportions a few Novembers back, but that happens only every 33 years.)

Weather permitting, the Geminids should put on a pretty good show this year. OK, I'll admit that a "pretty good show" means that you may see a bright meteor every couple of minutes. But if you've ever seen a bright meteor or "shooting star" streak across the sky, you'll know that it can be pretty exciting. 20-30 times over an hour is quite memorable.

Now here's the downside....... Don't even think about doing this near a city. Ambient city light will wash out all but the very brightest of meteors. (Consider how many stars you can see in the city compared to under a dark rural sky.) Further, the meteors will not be above the horizon until the earth rotates into the meteor field, about 11pm at the earliest.

So here's an offer that you can't refuse: If you feel even a little bit adventurous, I'm organizing a meteor-watching/star-gazing outing that evening. I'm planning to head out to my regular stargazing area in Agua Dulce to view the Geminids, and you're very welcome to come along. Agua Dulce is off the 14 (Antelope Valley) freeway, about 15 miles from where the 14 splits off from the 5 freeway. It's actually not that far -- without traffic, about 35 minutes from downtown Sherman Oaks -- but it's away from civilization, at 2,500 feet often above low clouds, and far enough from Los Angeles to the south and Palmdale to the north to provide a pretty dark sky.

Details on this special limited-time offer below. But first, to answer inquiring minds.....

What's a meteor? It's a speck of space crud, no larger than a pea and often much smaller, burning up as it speeds through the earth's atmosphere. (A meteorite is a larger piece of space crud that doesn't fully burn up in the atmosphere and manages to land on earth, occasionally making a big boom. Really, really big booms are much more rarely, but still with finite probability, made by asteroids or comets colliding with earth. Just ask the dinosaurs.)

What's a meteor shower? As the earth hurtles through space it regularly passes through large fields of space crud left behind from comet trails, for example. The resulting meteor display is referred to as a shower. When the field is particularly dense with crud, the result is a meteor storm, with hundreds or sometimes thousands of meteors being visible per hour.

Why is this meteor shower called the Geminids? Because the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation Gemini. (Leonids appear to come from Leo; Perseids appear to come from Perseus, etc.) To illustrate, here's what the sky will look like that night:


I'll have my binoculars to aid the viewing. Despite what you might think, you don't need a telescope for basic stargazing, and in many cases a telescope is more harm than help. Saturn won't look nearly like a picture in an astronomy book, but with binoculars you can easily make out that it has rings.

Here's the plan: For anybody who wants to carpool and/or caravan from my house in Sherman Oaks, we'll be heading out at about 11:00pm to be acclimated to the dark at Agua Dulce by midnight, and figure to start heading back home about 1:15am. (Yes, I've organized this kind of thing before, and it's worked out well.) I'm open to receiving guests by 10:00pm for a little pre-meteor-shower partying. (I'll be out at book club earlier. Here's a plug for that.)

My address is 4649 Saloma Ave, Sherman Oaks, on the flats near Ventura and Kester. Map/directions

Phone: 818-990-7685, Cell: 818-481-2312 (I don't generally carry my cell, but will have it with me that night for obvious reasons.)

Where we're going.... Many years ago I discovered an excellent spot (and other stargazers have discovered this spot too). It's a clearing adjacent to Agua Dulce Canyon Road, about 1.5 miles south of the 14 at the Agua Dulce exit. (The town of Agua Dulce is north of the 14.) Map

You may ask "I'd like to go, but Sherman Oaks is really out of my way. Can I just meet you at the clearing in Agua Dulce?" Of course! And let's take that a step farther. If anybody wants to offer an alternate carpool/caravan location, here's a way to organize that: I put up a blog post at http://geminids-la.blogspot.com which duplicates this email. If you'd rather leave from an alternate location and want to advertise it to others, post a comment on the blog with your plan and contact info. (I'll take the blog down soon afterwards, so don't worry about your contact info remaining on the Internet indefinitely.)

Directions: Agua Dulce Canyon Road is exit 15 on the 14 freeway, the next exit after Soledad Canyon Road, which is exit 11. At the exit, make a right. (A.D.C. Road is the only road there, so it's impossible to miss.) About 1.5 miles on this dark road -- high beams needed -- you'll come across an obvious clearing on the left. (Start looking after 1 mile.) The clearing is probably a good 50 feet wide and a few hundred feet long, so there's plenty of room to pull the car over safely, of course being cognizant of other people and cars that may be there. There are no cross roads between the exit and this clearing, and (at last look) only one housealong the way. If you come to the end of Agua Dulce Canyon Road, where it meets up with Soledad Canyon Road, you've gone too far... head back about 1/2 mile and look for the clearing on the right this time. Oh, it's relatively flat in this area, so don't be concerned about driving on mountain roads.

Bundle up -- it'll be c-c-c-cold. Bring a thermos with hot drinks. (Coffee to keep you awake?) A flashlight and binoculars may come in handy too, though not required.

Besides duplicating this initial email in the blog, I'll also keep the blog updated with any new info, particularly with weather updates, so check back. Blog link.

Hope to see ya. It'll be fun!

Randy