2017/12/13-14 Geminids (Otter Lake)

This is a composite image of the Geminids meteor shower taken with my Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm lens at f2.8. I took hundreds of exposures over the night, all while tracking these stars. Then I picked all the shots with meteors in them and digitally added them together into Photoshop to create this image... a near "all night" capture of 74 Geminids. This is a really wide view, covering most of the entire sky. The Milky Way is visible across several constellations... including Orion, Taurus and Perseus. All the meteors seem to radiate from a point in Gemini, an effect due to perspective. Those tiny meteors near the radiant point are ones seen coming nearly "head on" to the camera. Taken on December 13/14 2017.

This ia another composite of the Geminids taken with my Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm lens at f2.8. Late at night, with Gemini crossing the zenith, and meteors seen "falling" straight down in every direction. This image contains 49 Geminids, digitally stacked in Photoshop. Taken on the morning of December 14 2017. What is that down on the ground?! Alien? Christmas Tree? No, it's Shane who just happened to stand out there with his camera, taking pictures. This is one of those unplanned shots, as I had no idea he was going to stand there and be lit up perfectly with his head lamp. It turns out that I like the result

This ia another composite image of the Geminids taken with my Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm lens at f2.8. This was towards the end of the night. Some bright long meteors were captured heading down to the east. The Big Dipper is visible on the top left, oriented vertically.

One of the bright fireballs seen late at night! This one was greenish and it lit up a part of the sky. This is a single image only (not a composite). Canon 5D, Rokinon 24mm f.1.4 lens (set at f2.0) Morning of December 14, 2017

Long Geminid meteor meets a flaring artificial satellite. In reality, both were likely very far from each other... just an interesting line of sight! Taken on the morning of December 14 2017. Canon 6D, Rokinon 14mm f.2.8 lens

Another digital composite, this time taken with a Canon 5D, Rokinon 24mm f.1.4 lens (set at f2.0). Night of December 13/14 2017

Another single image of a Geminid. The grey bands at the bottom right is a slight haze that passed by. Canon 5D, Rokinon 24mm f.1.4 lens (set at f2.0) Morning of December 14, 2017

This image is a combination of 22 unguided time exposures (each lasting 45 seconds). Unguided means untracked (i.e. camera set on a fixed tripod). Because of Earth's rotation, the objects in the sky move continuously from east to west. The resulting 20 minutes worth of unguided photos created long streaks of stars. This effect makes star colours more obvious. Seven meteors were captured too! On the upper left side, the tiny white dot is a geo-synchronous satellite. Canon 5D, Rokinon 24mm f.1.4 lens (set at f2.0) Morning of December 14, 2017

The night following the peak had much reduced rates, but it was still a beautiful night! The highlight was a very impressive earthgrazing meteor that came out of nowhere and crossed over 90 degrees of the sky! We first caught sight of it straight up, and we followed it for several seconds as it descended to the south, changing colours along the way! Very impressive!! Even an ultra wide lens could not even fit the whole path of the meteor in one picture! Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm lens at f2.8