General Session - December 14, 2017

Constellation: Auriga 
Asterism: Leaping Minnow (in Auriga)
Geminid Meteor Shower

Location: SCO
Date: 2017-12-14
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM AST
Equipment: Binoculars, 10x420  IS
S&T Chart Reference: 12
Transparency: Not recorded
Seeing: Not recorded

Slight hazy skies with occasional cloud cover. A group of us were at SCO to observe the dark skies.

Leaping Minnow / Flying Minnow (Asterism) Time: 7:40 PM AST Equipment: Binoculars Dave Chapman pointed out the asterism. Three sets of double stars with supposedly a single star each for the tail and head. Very easily seen with the binoculars. It includes Aurigae 14, 16 & HD 34257, 17 & IQ Aur, 18 & 19 and another star unidentified. It doesn't look like a minnow in the star maps but it sure does in binoculars! Can't miss it! If looking in a telescope it is between IC410 and the Flaming Star Nebula / IC405.

Geminid Meteor Shower
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM AST
Equipment: Visual
The slight hazy skies eventually clouded over and gave us snow that needed the observing session. However, we did get to see 17 Geminids over the 2-hour time frame.