All-sky Composite of Geminid Meteors

The annual Geminid meteor shower peaks on December 13/14 and as expected, it displayed a fascinating show in 2009, the best seen Geminid shower for many sky observers. The shower is created as planet Earth sweeps through dusty debris from extinct comet Phaethon. In this all-sky view from Mount Uludag, the ancient Mysian Olympus in Turkey, many meteors are captured in a period between 0030-0230 local time. As noted by the photographer “I took a series of about 150 identical 30-second pictures in less than 2 hours to make this composite of 26 Geminids radiating from star Castor and scattering everywhere; sky full of bullets. I used Canon 5D and a 8 mm fisheye to create an all-sky view. The camera also recorded a green airglow above the southern horizon. The northern horizon is dominated by the light Bursa, the nearby city.”