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Get your camera ready: one of 2021's best meteor showers is on Dec 14

Tan KW
Publish date: Mon, 13 Dec 2021, 05:46 PM
Tan KW
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Photos of shooting stars and meteors can be stunning, but capturing them takes both skill and luck. A golden opportunity to try to achieve that magic shot is coming up soon when the Geminids meteor shower streaks past Earth.
 
The Geminids originate from the rock comet 3200 Phaethon. They’re slower than other meteors, which makes them more visible, and they usually peak between Dec 4 and 16.
 
According to astronomers, the best time to see the meteor shower this year will be on the morning of Dec 14 from around 2am to dawn local time. That applies to all parts of the globe, according to astronomy website earthsky.org.
 
If you’re really lucky you could see dozens of meteors per hour. But that depends on a cloudless night sky for one thing. So what’s the key to taking a successful photo of something like a meteor shower?
 
“You’ll get the best results by setting an SLR camera to low sensitivity and simply letting it expose for half an hour,” says Andreas Schmidt, scientific director of the Stellarium planetarium in Erkrath, Germany. A long exposure will ensure that the camera takes in enough light.
 
The various celestial bodies appear differently in photos. Stars can be recognised by their circular orbits, whereas bright, even and straight streaks of light that extend over the whole image are satellites, Schmidt says. The Geminids appear as strips of light that get brighter and then end abruptly.
 
To avoid a blurred image it’s best to use a tripod. If you don’t have one you can ensure that the camera is pointing skyward by propping it up with a book or some other solid object.
 
However, even using a tripod is no guarantee of blur-free pictures. Schmidt cautions against light tripods that can sway in the wind, meaning that the image will lose its sharpness.
 
Whether the weather will play along depends on where you are on the 14th. Frank Lungenstrass, managing director of the Galileum Solingen planetarium in Germany, advises checking out a two- or three-day weather forecast beforehand.
 
Sites such as meteoblue.com gives location-based predictions, including information on cloud cover at various heights and the general visibility of celestial bodies.
 
The Geminids won’t only be visible on the 14th, although that is the best chance to see them - you might be lucky and see them in the days before and after that, astronomer Schmidt explains.
 
He says the meteors will be distributed over a wide area of the night sky. In bright areas like cities you won’t see as many of them as in darker, less built-up areas.
 
 - dpa
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