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Image: Geminid Meteor Shower over Nathrop, Colorado

Although the Geminids are widely regarded as one of the best and most consistent meteor showers of the year, due to the meteor shower falling near the winter solstice few venture out in the winter cold to observe. Due to Comet 46/P Wirtanen brightening in the last few days as it gets quite close to earth, I decided this was the year to catch the Geminids.

After watching weather for the 48 hours preceding Friday night’s peak (at 0235 hrs MST), I decided to head toward Great Sand Dunes National Park, though I only made it past Buena Vista before seeing the shot. Just north of Nathrop I found a high perch up near a cell tower on the terrace deposits a stone’s throw north of Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, just east of the Chalk Cliffs. Not perfect, but it would give me a decent view of Mt. Antero to try and get both meteors and the comet.

Like most everyone else, I’ve observed the Perseids many times, but the Geminids proved to be a unique shower, as I often observed ‘sets’ of meteors coming out of the radiant (near the star Castor, in Gemini) all at the same time. Mostly yellow and white meteors, with many faint ones near the horizon.

I shot with two cameras, one of which was set to run the whole night (11:55pm-5:01AM) and captured meteors in roughly 25% of the 900 frames. Knowing it was going to get cold I bundled up, and stayed warm until about 3:00 am, at which time it was 16 degrees. Throughout the night I had two IPAs freeze up on me before I could finish them (a water bottle in the car was frozen solid in the morning), yet I flipped a coin and slept in the hammock despite the frigid temps. It went pretty well; it was my first time using the new Klymit Insulated Hammock V sleeping pad, which was quite warm and comfy.

Of the 225+ meteors I captured, I chose only the brightest for the composite image, which ended up being about 100. The largest meteor of the night that I captured occurred just after 4:00 AM, and its entry into the atmosphere left a ‘persistent train’ (ionized gases that glow orange) for about 5 minutes afterwards. One small meteor also pierced Comet Wirtanen (see crops below).

After hours of post-processing, I finally finished the image tonight, so here it is…

Geminid Meteor Shower over Nathrop, Colorado: