Geminid Meteor

Was it really only 4 degrees above zero the other night? I didn't notice.

I went out and braved the cold to capture some of the Geminid meteor shower that peaked on the morning of the 14th. I counted approximately 60 meteors in the one hour that I was out there. I had on enough layers to clothe a small village, and managed to stay fairly warm for the brunt of the hour that I was out. It was the feet that got me... once your toes and feet get cold there is no turning back. The conditions were perfect, and the meteors were beautiful. I didn't get the fireball that I was after, but I did manage to capture one decent meteor in with the star trails. There are several others in the photo below, but they were too dim to pick up with the Sigma 10-20. Need something that can do lower than f4.0 for that.

Looking like another 2-4 inches of snow here in central Illinois. I'm back in the Champaign area for the majority of the next month for the holiday semester break. I'm always anxious to get the spring semester underway as the days only get longer and warmer, and after a few weeks that first hopeless "slight risk" always pops up somewhere in the midwest. That day that you know you'll regret going for, but after a long and cold winter you can't help but lose sleep over. Only a couple months and change until what I consider the beginning of storm season. Nothing is fun to chase until early April, but as I always say, *someday*, that early season violent outbreak will show it's ugly face again, and I can only hope it's not the day I finally give up on the early season chase.

Geminid meteor and about 30 minutes worth of star trails:

Beautiful water vapor illustration of the powerhouse storm system that brought the blizzard conditions to the midwest on Saturday and Sunday.