Meteor Shower of December

As seen on National Geographic News this panoramic view has captured the beauty of the winter Milky Way (as seen from the northern hemisphere) and the bright stars of Winter Hexagon (including Sirius, the brightest star in entire night sky, at left). The sky view is imaged above Zagros Mountains of Iran. There are 3 meteors captured in this view, one in the constellation Orion, right near the Orion Nebula. A faint one above the Orion’s head in the middle of the image and the third brighter one at far right near bright star Capella. All three meteors point backward to an area near the two bright stars of Gemini, the Twins, at top of the image, relating them to the Geminid meteor shower. With peak activity on December 13/14, Geminid is one of the best meteor showers of the year. The shower is created as planet Earth sweeps through dusty debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon.