Starship Asterisk*

Geminid Meteors over Chile

Explanation: From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on planet Earth over the past few weeks. Recorded near the shower's peak over the night of December 13 and 14, the above skyscape captures Gemini's shooting stars in a four-hour composite from the dark skies of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. In the foreground the 2.5-meter du Pont Telescope is visible as well as the 1-meter SWOPE telescope. The skies beyond the meteors are highlighted by Jupiter, seen as the bright spot near the image center, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, seen vertically on the image left, and the pinkish Orion Nebula on the far left. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

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This is a great composition.

it all looks so sharp and focused. And beautiful !

Yes, great picture!

Note the purplish-pink Rosette Nebula at center left. And is that the Beehive Cluster at about 3 o'clock?

The Pleiades are sinking.

Δέδυκε μεν ἀ σελάννα
καὶ Πληΐαδεσ, μέσαι δὲ
νύκτεσ πάρα δ᾽ ἔρχετ᾽ ὤρα,
ἔγω δὲ μόνα κατεύδω. [transcription]

The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, the time is going by and I recline alone.

Sapho

Ann

DUCK!!!! Incoming!!!


Nice picture!

:---[===] *

Those skies are incredibly dark! I can even see Barnard's Loop and Sh2-264!!!

P.S. Yay tomorrow's APOD is RCW 58!

APOD Robot wrote: Explanation: From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on planet Earth over the past few weeks.

Today’s APOD photo is a vastly better example of the geminids than the photo provided in the Wikipedia article linked to in today’s description. That photo is meteorically mediocre, containing only one measly meteor half covered up by a bush! A good photographic example of a meteor shower should show numerous meteors radiating from the namesake constellation, IMO.

This is a lovely composite, both for the Geminids and the deep sky, with Jupiter and a couple of observatories thrown in as bonuses! Somehow with the radiant fairly low to the horizon and so many meteors in a tight pattern, i really get the sense that Earth is flying into a debris stream.

BDanielMayfield wrote:[Today’s APOD photo is a vastly better example of the geminids than the photo provided in the Wikipedia article linked to in today’s description. That photo is meteorically mediocre, containing only one measly meteor half covered up by a bush! A good photographic example of a meteor shower should show numerous meteors radiating from the namesake constellation, IMO.

Wikipedia can only publish images which are in the public domain or which have been donated to it. If you are the copyright holder of a better image and wish to donate it, please do so, for the betterment of humanity.

Rob

That's good to know Rob. Thanks.

As for your suggestion, I'm not, so I don't, but if I did, I would.

Bruce

starsurfer wrote:Those skies are incredibly dark! I can even see Barnard's Loop and Sh2-264!!!

P.S. Yay tomorrow's APOD is RCW 58!

Don’t be so sure. Those APOD people are tricky. Lots of bubbles out there

It’s liable to be a GRB -
Or a BBB ?? (Big Bang Bubble) -
Monseigneur Georges Lemaître as a baby contemplating where he cam from ?? -

You just never know; I hope it’s a total new one….

Monseigneur Georges Lemaître as a baby contemplating where he cam from ?? -

Childs World - Bubbles.jpg

Lemaitre image reminds me that it you exhale slowly when making your bubbles they accumulate the warm air from your lungs. Then when the bubble releases it goes up instead of down! When New Dawn dish detergent came on the market you could do this readily and my grandson and i spent hours and hours and hours doing this. Lemaitre looks like he has a bowl of New Dawn and he also is caught in a conundrum betwixt up or down.