Geminids Meteor Shower 13-14 December 2023

Our NWS Detroit Pontiac forecast in the afternoon was mostly clear low of 20F. In reality, it was mostly cloudy in northern St. Clair County for much of the night. It was clearer at 2030 - 2100 than the rest of the night. I saw three meteors driving home and then taking trash out to the can. That spurred me to step up my camera game and get it ready for the night. 

I tried again at 2350 and cloudy again with broken sky north this time. I was not impressed with the camera display and cloud cover and I did not even look at the screen... little did I know the aurora had popped its head up again to a low green and pink glow through the broken sky. The geomagnetic level was a KP 4 again and this makes several viewings this year at KP 4 levels with the aurora. Our planetary magnetic field is weakening. This may have an impact on the viewing of aurora during little or no geomagnetic storms.

My initial shot at 2200 was total cloud cover of high cirrus, alto stratus, and even mixed in there cumulostratus. There was a hole to the south showing Orion but very washed out due to the lights of Port Huron and the surrounding area communities.

Shooting through the broken sky allowed me to capture a few meteors. There were misses during the closed shutter processing though.

The 0500 hour was the next trip outside. The sun began illuminating the east-south-east sky and I was still seeing meteors. It seemed though still there was more clouds and smaller holes to shoot images through. As usual, the camera shutter was closed when the good one brilliantly streaked overhead.