NASA photo of the Day: Geminid Meteor over Monument Valley

[Ichingcarpenter]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091212.html

[enigmatic]

1. Wow

How beautiful.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Intense Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks this Sunday

The meteor shower has been growing in intensity in recent decades and should be an even better holiday treat than usual this year, since it's falling in a nearly moonless week.


Coming fast on the heels of its more famous cousin the Leonid meteor shower—which peaked less than a month ago—the Geminid show should feature as many as 140 shooting stars per hour between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

The Geminids are slow meteors that create beautiful long arcs across the sky—many lasting a second or two.

Favoring observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the Geminids are expected to be most frequent within two hours of 1:10 a.m. ET in the wee hours of Monday.

The shower's radiant—the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate—is the constellation Gemini, which rises above the eastern horizon after 9 p.m. local time.

Astronomers recommend observers head outside between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091211-geminids-geminid-meteor-shower-tonight.html

[midnight]

3. Brilliant sky.

[1776Forever]

4. Truly awesome! Nothing more beautiful then nature's realism!

:pals: Thanks for posting!

[Fumesucker]

5. Here's a site that will give you astronomical weather forecasts for N America..

Cloud cover and sky transparency..

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/astro/index_e.html

[caraher]

6. Thanks! [n/t]

[Mithreal]

7. Thank you for sharing, very pretty.