(meteorobs) Geminid photos uploaded/did anyone notice anything unusual about the trains this year?

[Leo S]

Hi all,

This year I made a last minute dash to the New Forest to try and catch 
the peak of the Geminids. Running 5 DSLRs for the first time I was able 
to capture at least 91 meteors between 1900 UT (13th) and 0500 UT 
(14th). I've uploaded some of the brighter meteors captured here, along 
with a few words about the night:
http://www.btinternet.com/~l.stachowicz/pics/gem09/gem09.htm

This was the best meteor shower I've observed in many years, with many 
negative magnitude Geminids, and very few lulls in activity.

Perhaps it's just me, but did anyone else notice more persistent trains 
than usual? Although there were not too many fireballs that I saw, even 
dimmer (but still negative magnitude) Geminids seemed to leave long 
lasting trains. However, I didn't notice this as much until I went 
through the photos from the night, and virtually every reasonably bright 
meteor seemed to leave a train!

I've made some animations out of the image sequences that I captured. 
The best example is a Geminid point fireball (or very close to it), 
which I only noticed because of the train produced in the following  frames.

Download Gem09_pointfireball.mpg: http://www.mediafire.com/?x2zt2gjjyyn

15 sec exposures (+1 sec approx. between exposures) x 23 frames (not 
including meteor frame)  = 368 seconds  (6 minutes and 8 seconds)

Location: The New Forest, UK (50.8361,-1.72823)
Date/time of start of frame: 2009-12-14 1:10:37 UT (+/- 1sec)
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Lens 24mm 1.4L Mk1@ 1.4
ISO: 800


Download Gem09train_seq01.mpg: http://www.mediafire.com/?yhri2nw2h4g

20 sec exposures (+1 sec approx. between exposures) x 9 frames (not 
including meteor frame)  =189 (3 minutes and 9 seconds)

Location: The New Forest, UK (50.8361,-1.72823)
Date/time of start of frame 2009-12-13 21:39:38 UT (+/- 1sec)
Camera: Canon EOS 1DsII
Lens 35mm 1.4L @ 1.4
ISO: 800


Download Gem09train_seq02.mpg: http://www.mediafire.com/?zlm3mjyzghm

15 sec exposures (+1 sec approx. between exposures) x 22 frames (not 
including meteor frame)  = 352 (5 minutes and 52 seconds)

Location: The New Forest, UK (50.8361,-1.72823)
Date/time of start of frame: 2009-12-14 00:04:22 UT (+/- 1sec)
Camera: Canon EOS 1DsII
Lens 35mm 1.4L @ 1.4
ISO: 800

Clear skies,
Leo