Geminid Meteor over Monument Valley

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day on the night of Geminid meteor shower in mid-December, TWAN photographer was fortunate with starry skies after a snow storm in the Monument Valley, a well-known site in the border of Arizona and Utah in USA. This picturesque foreground of famous buttes is Familiar as the backdrop for many American western movies. The buttes are composed of hard rock left behind after water has eroded away the surrounding soft rock. The meteor in this moonlit evening view appears in the faint constellation Monoceros. But its surrounded by bright winter stars including Sirius (lower right), the brightest star of the night sky, Procyon (lower left), and Rigel and part of the Orion constellation (upper right).