Calm Geminid night in Namibia
From the notebook of Safra-go.cz… Everyone who watches the skies, knows about annual Geminid meteor shower. The best time for watching it is around 14th December due to Earth’s approaching throught the thickest stream of dust particles from 3200 Phaeton. Well, unfortunatelly in this time on the northern hemisphere comes on the winter time, so usually the gazing is connected with freezing temperatures oudside, snow on the ground or even with lot of clouds. But what about south Africa? That was my question, considering lower activity due to smaller height of the radiant above the horizon. But still – to see or capture a bright Geminid meteor close to Magellan’s galaxies was my goal. The image, captured on 14th December 2014 far from the cities, very close to a San’s (bushmen) village Tsumkwe in Otjondjupa region, shows this great moment. So calm and exciting in same time. One of the Geminid meteor really fell just agains two Magellanic clouds, while the colorful emmision nebulae of the southern Milky Way were capturable too. The greenish glue is caused by strong airglow that night and the nature was so dark, that the light if the sky (especially Milky Way and the brightest stars) caused shadow under the car. This is too hard to see by eyes, but my sensitive camera revealed that. Used Canon 6D IR MOD, Samyang 24 mm, f2.8, ISO 10000, 21×15 s panorama, tripod.
The hole into the Namibian night
But not only the meteor shower was the reason of travelling so far from the civilization. Also the beautiful Milky way with lot of memorable nebulae in it came on my mind in the time of the decision. Large Gum nebula, Barnard loop in Orion, Rosetta nebula or the Carina nebula in one moment with the Geminid meteor. And like a bonus very strong green airglow too. It was so clear idea to go out, not so far from lions (but still so far to be easy and sleep on the ground). In the middle of nothing is the sky like the escape of a hole in the Namibian night. Used Canon 6D IR Mod, Samyang 24 mm, f2.8, ISO 10000, 49×15 s panorama; tripod.
