Geminids Meteor Shower, Aurora and Sun

December 14 early evening

I came in from 40 minutes away back to Olathe. I looked outside and it was clear but I did not see the aurora in the Northwest down near the horizon. I did not check my home phone where an astronomy pal from my club had left a message about it. She also sent a message on my mobile phone but I left it in the car!!! Otherwise I would have seen it. It only lasted 15 minutes but it was a beaut!!!The reports of impending storms from the Sun only reported 35% when I checked the night before but things obviously changed. A great photographer from our club, Vic Winter. took this photo.



Thursday morning,I missed Geminids meteor maximum time to see them. When I went to bed to take a few hours of sleep , I woke up at 2AM and it was cloudy. But I tried Friday morning and eventhough it was after the maximum, I went out for an hour before I had to get up and teach.

I only saw 5 ( 3 Geminids) but the weather was not too cloud and the transparency of the sky well I could see to 5.5 magnitude.I am more interested in seeing the bright ones when I do see faint ones I record on my paper as I have done since I was a newbie astronomer in the 1960's in Rhode Island.

The highlight was a Yellow ZERO-magnitude Geminid at 4:07 CT that started high in the South heading out from Gemini (the radiant for this shower). It started faintly but gradually sparkling as it travled 25 degrees to the South and peaked at zero magnitude (this is about 100 times brighter then the faintest stars you can see with your eyes for most people ). It wasn't a fireball but it lasted 0.75 seconds and then flashed out leaving a 0.75 smoke like train.Oh yeahhhhhh.

But now it was Friday morning and I was heading South to teach and Paola High School , Paola, KS.I headed down the road the Sun was just coming up. Sometimes there are some nice sunrises and this one was a nice one.
I could see one of those filtered sunspikes coming through the clouds and the Sun was not up yet. It was a nice pink red as it rose high up from the Eastern horizon. I stopped by the side of the road , got out my camera and took some photos.

more different weather phenomenon at this nice website
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/

So it was interesting week before my teaching gets out for Wednesday.

seen in Dodge City, KS newspaper

seen in Doge City, KS newspaper
Beeson Elementary students learn about meteorites

By Ashley Nietfeld
Dodge City Daily Globe

Michael Schweitzer/Daily Globe Dr. Don Stimpson of Haviland shines a light through a piece of a meteorite to demonstrate that some meteorites can produce a stained glass effect when exposed to light. He showed the meteorite to students Friday morning at Beeson Elementary School.


(photo) Students at Beeson Elementary sat riveted as they listened to Dr. Don Stimpson talk about meteorites during school on Friday.

Stimpson, along with Paul Ross, discovered one of the largest meteorites in the United States on Ross' land in Kiowa County this summer. He spent all day giving presentations to each of the classes.
The meteorite, which students learned is a piece of an asteroid that has broken off and fallen to the Earth, consists of five main segments ranging in weight from 150 to 520 pounds. The meteorite is part of the Brenham meteorites that landed on Earth about 20,000 years ago.


Michael Schweitzer/Daily Globe Students at Beeson Elementary School were able to get a hands-on feel of a 300- pound meteorite that was found near Haviland.


When Stimpson told students the combined weight of the segments was 1,500 pounds, gasps of "whoa" could be heard around the room. Stimpson, equally excited, said, "Yeah, it was pretty amazing."
Brenham is a stony-iron meteorite. Stimpson explained there are three types of meteoroids – the term for a meteorite while it's still in space – stony, stony-iron and iron.
Stimpson brought samples of the different meteorites, including one that weighed 300 pounds and had to be pulled in on a wagon.