Starship Asterisk*

alter-ego wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:28 am

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:09 pm I'll note that if you follow the "straight" line from the meteor trail up, it badly misses Castor, which is very near the radiant, but I presume that is only because of the panoramic view, and the fact that the normally "straight" trail appears curved here, and it is that (slight) curve that must be followed back, maintaining the curve, in order to intersect the radiant.

That's true.
Generally speaking, meteors travel in a straight line, which become great circles when projected onto a sphere. Imaged onto a plane, the curvatures vary depending on the projection method, and where and what direction in the field of view the meteors travel.
Below I've replicated the APOD FoV and projection good enough to show the appearance of a great-circle arc originating near the meteor trail and extending to the radiant about 57°away. I intentionally directed this arc to the radiant, and don't know the exact curvature of the trail. As you say, the larger the FoV, the larger the curvature.
 
stellarium-006.jpg

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:09 pm I'll note that if you follow the "straight" line from the meteor trail up, it badly misses Castor, which is very near the radiant, but I presume that is only because of the panoramic view, and the fact that the normally "straight" trail appears curved here, and it is that (slight) curve that must be followed back, maintaining the curve, in order to intersect the radiant.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:02 pm

hypatia wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:54 pm What are the three blue 'stars' right above Rigel?

Those would be the belt of Orion! Which from left to right are named: Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion's_Belt wrote:Orion's Belt or the Belt of Orion, also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters,[1] is an asterism in the constellation Orion. It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Looking for Orion's Belt is the easiest way to locate Orion in the night sky. The stars are more or less evenly spaced in a straight line, and so can be visualized as the belt of the eponymous hunter's clothing. They are best viewed in the early night sky during the Northern Winter/Southern Summer, in particular the month of January at around 9:00 pm.[2]

And here are some of the other stars in Orion and the nearby nebula:

Click to view full size image

hypatia wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:54 pm What are the three blue 'stars' right above Rigel?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion's_Belt wrote:Orion's Belt or the Belt of Orion, also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters,[1] is an asterism in the constellation Orion. It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Looking for Orion's Belt is the easiest way to locate Orion in the night sky. The stars are more or less evenly spaced in a straight line, and so can be visualized as the belt of the eponymous hunter's clothing. They are best viewed in the early night sky during the Northern Winter/Southern Summer, in particular the month of January at around 9:00 pm.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengger_Desert wrote:

Landscape of the southern fringe of the Tengger Desert

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<<The Tengger Desert (Mongolian: Тэнгэр цөл, lit. 'Sky Desert') is an arid natural region that covers about 36,700 km² and is mostly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China. The expansion of the Tengger and its neighbour, the Badain Jaran Desert, has been apparent since the 1950s, when large volumes of water were diverted from rivers to feed agricultural expansion and huge tracts of forest were removed.>>