Apod 2.6

This photo of the Southern Geminds is a composted image running through the Australian skies during the Geminid Meteor shower. The extinct comet of Phaethon provides the dust particles that vaporize when the plow through Earths atmosphere. This beautiful image has the particles traveling parallel to each other, and has the streaks radiating from a single point in the sky near Geminis twin star, Castor and Pollux which is seen in the lover right corner. This was taken over a 2 hour period of December 14th. The short exposure caught the streaks are combined with a single long exposure to the background stars. Gemini, the milky way, and Orion can also be spot in the photo.