Time Lapses: A Meteoric Winter Night in a Viking Church

Image © by P-M. Hedén. Image Source: National Geographic via TWAN.

Tonight, tomorrow night, and the night after are the peak times to see the Geminid meteor shower, the only meteor storm which is caused by an asteroid and not a comet. There is a fantastic time lapse video at The World at Night (here), which shows the 2010 Geminids falling over a thousand year old Viking church in Vallentuna, Sweden. The image and video link are reproduced with kind permission from P-M. Hedén and TWAN.


The radiant is in the constellation of Gemini, although they can appear anywhere in the night sky. This year, the moon will obscure much of the shower, but the time to look for them is after midnight and until dawn. Spacedex gives North American viewing instructions: "In the United States and Canada, eastern observers will be particularly well-positioned for maximum activity, expected sometime between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m., when the radiant of the Leonid shower will be well up in the dark southeastern sky." The map guide below is for Ontario, Quebec and the Northeastern United States. The Spacedex guide notes that in the Southern Hemisphere, the radiant will not climb above the horizon, but you'll still see the meteors. There is a worldwide chart (here) that tells you exactly where to look in the night sky, depending on where you live.

The Spacedex 2010 Geminids guide gives you a constellations map (click on it to enlarge). Image 2010-2011 © Travis Brown. Image Source: Spacedex.

For my other posts on Time Lapses go here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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