It's Raining Gems

 

While most major meteor showers originate from comets, the Geminids are among a few believed to originate from an asteroid. The source is the object called 3200 Phaethon. It is known as a "rock comet" since it had a trajectory like a comet but had no tail . The object was discovered by famous American Astronomer Fred Whipple who realized the object was connected to the meteor shower. Due to its close approach to the Sun, Phaethon is named after the character of Greek myth who drove the Sun-god Helios' chariot. 3200 Phaethon was discovered on Oct. 11, 1983, by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite..

A Geminid in Orion

My 2023 Geminid imaging setup included a DSLR mounted on a start tracker and set up for 3 nights in a row in my backyard with a self timer attached. Despite one lost day to a false start, the resulting composite shows seven Geminid meteors imaged over the nights of Dec 13th to 15th, 2023. The imaging duration spans the predicted peak night of Geminids in 2023.

The image on the left is a crop from the image above. This frames up a single Geminid meteor streaking across the constellation of Orion. It originated near Betelgeuse and travelled past the easternmost belt star, Mintaka. 

All images were taken using a stock Canon 70D DSLR on a tracked mount with a 11 mm ultra wide lens at its widest setting, ISO 800 and 10s exposure. No filters were used.

composite showing seven Geminid meteors imaged over the nights of Dec 13th to 15th, 2023. The imaging duration spans the predicted peak night of Geminids in 2023.