• Geminid meteors sparkle like gems

    Brian Emfinger / RealClearWX

    Arkansas photographer Brian Emfinger captured this flash of a Geminid fireball over the city lights of Fort Smith, Ark., early Thursday, using a camera that was set up on Mount Magazine, the state's highest point. For more about Emfinger, check out his website, RealClearWX.com.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    Arkansas photographer Brian Emfinger says the best meteor he ever captured on camera happened while he was napping.

    "Definitely the brightest meteor I've ever imaged," he said today. "If I was awake, it would have been the brightest meteor I've ever seen."

    Emfinger, who snaps pictures of storms and sky phenomena for his RealClearWX website, said the Geminid fireball streaked over the skyline of Fort Smith, Ark., at around 1:07 a.m. CT Thursday, while he was in the midst of an all-night meteor photography session.

    The Geminid meteor shower is the year's most reliable display of shooting stars, reaching its peak annually on the night of Dec. 13-14. By most accounts, this was a great year for the Geminids, due to a moonless sky and a meteor tally that reportedly peaked at levels well above the typical 100 to 120 per hour. The flashes occur when bits of debris left behind by an extinct comet known as Phaeton burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

    Like many meteor fans, Emfinger was watching the skies not only on the peak night, but on the preceding nights as well. On Wednesday night, he drove up to the top of Mount Magazine, the highest point in Arkansas, and then set up a fisheye camera to take pictures automatically. Sometime after midnight, he settled in for a nap in his car.

    A while later, he got a call on his cell phone from a friend who reported seeing something like lightning flashes on the horizon ... on a clear night. "He was assuming it was some spectacular meteor," Emfinger recalled.

    As soon as he could, Emfinger checked the shots that were stored on his camera. "I scrolled through them real quick — and there it was, descending toward the skyline of Fort Smith," he said. Observers in Oklahoma and other westward states also reported seeing the fireball, Emfinger said.

    That blaze of celestial glory wasn't this week's only Geminid highlight. Scroll down below for other scenes from the past couple of nights. It's important to remember that the show isn't over yet: Although the Geminids have passed their peak, there's still a chance to see a fair number of meteors tonight and tomorrow night. Keep a watch on SpaceWeather.com's gallery for still more meteor photos.

    One more thing: In advance of the peak, some experts speculated that there might be a separate wave of meteors that would have been known as the Piscids, sparked by the debris left behind by Comet Wirtanen. These meteors would appear to emanate from a point in the constellation Pisces, rather than the Geminids' point of origin in Gemini. However, I've seen no reports of significant sightings on Thursday night — which suggests that the Piscid meteor shower was a no-show.

    Brian Emfinger / RealClearWX

    Photographer (and storm chaser) Brian Emfinger captured a bright Geminid fireball on camera early today from Mount Magazine State Park in Arkansas. "My camera caught a bunch of meteors, the most I've ever gotten in any one night of shooting meteors," Emfinger told SpaceWeather.com. Check out Emfinger's website, RealClearWX.com.

    Frank S. Andreassen / Nettfoto.com

    Norwegian photographer Frank S. Andreassen captured this shot of a meteor streaking through the northern lights outside Harstad at 9:30 p.m. local time Thursday night. For more of Andreassen's work, go to Nettfoto.com.

    Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

    Israelis float in a hot spring on the shore of the Dead Sea, near the kibbutz of Ein Gedi, as they look for Geminid meteor streaks above the Judean desert.

    Jeffrey Phelps

    A Geminid meteor appears to dive into the trees in Saukville, Wis., early Friday. Photographer Jeffrey Phelps sent in this image via NBC News' FirstPerson photo-sharing page for sky highlights. (You can, too.)

    More about the meteors:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Jeff Berkes Photography

    A Lyrid meteor leaves a streak in the skies over Shenandoah National Park in Virginia on the morning of April 20.

    Looking back at the Lyrids

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    Can you spot the meteor? Last weekend's Lyrid meteor shower produced lots of memorable pictures, as you can see in SpaceWeather.com's meteor gallery. But in Jeff Berkes' photograph, taken at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, the shooting star is just one little brushstroke in a cosmic masterpiece.

    The Milky Way's spray of stars stretches across the backdrop, and a gnarled tree stands in the spotlight that Berkes created using a technique called "light painting." It's the same technique Berkes used to great effect in last October's picture of the Orionid meteor shower.

    Berkes said last weekend's Lyrid shooting session wasn't exactly a walk in the park: "Being out that night, things got a little hairy ... literally! A black bear approached us around 11 p.m. one night, but left without any issues. ... I saw a bunch of Lyrids that night, but only captured a few faint ones with my camera. I used a Nikon D3 DSLR. It was great to view the Lyrids under a new moon and from one of my favorite national parks."

    The timing couldn't be better: This week is National Park Week, and Saturday is celebrated as Astronomy Day. You can double the celebratory spirit by going skywatching in a park this weekend. To find out what's going on in your neck of the woods, check out the Astronomical League's event listings, or check in with your local astronomy club.

    Where in the Cosmos
    Jeff Berkes' look at the Lyrids served as today's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook Page. It took only a minute or two for Nanette Broyles to spot the meteor streak and figure out that the picture was taken during the Lyrid meteor shower. To reward her quickness, I'm sending her a pair of Microsoft Research 3-D glasses, plus a 3-D picture of yours truly. Keep an eye on Facebook for the next "Where in the Cosmos" picture in a week. And if you haven't spotted the meteor yet ... look above the tree, just to the right of center.

    More meteor shots:

    Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

  • Meteor quest turns up treasures

    (c) Jeff Berkes Photography

    This photo combines the landscape of the Florida Keys with the flash of a meteor above on the night of Jan. 3-4, at the peak of the Quadrantid meteors.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News



    January is the perfect time for a road trip to Florida, and if there's a promising meteor shower to see, so much the better. That's what brought photographer Jeff Berkes down from Pennsylvania to the Florida Keys. The payoff came in the form of a stunning set of pictures showing the Quadrantid meteors at their peak.

    "The Florida Keys sounded really good in January for the Quadrantid meteor shower, but Mother Nature had the cold front follow me all the way south," Berkes wrote in his Flickr photo gallery. "The record low temperature for Key West is 41 degrees. It went down to 46, with winds around 20-30 mph near Big Pine Key this particular night on January 3rd / 4th, 2012."

    Berkes bundled up in two sweatshirts and a fleece, plus "a mad bomber hat" and winter gloves. Then he waited for the light show to begin. He wasn't disappointed.

    One picture shows twisted trees in the Keys, with a meteor flashing in the sky above. "That was captured earlier in the night, while the moon was still up," Berkes told me in an email. "It might even be just a random meteor instead of a Quadrantid meteor."

    Scientists say the Quadrantids are sparked every year on the night of Jan. 3-4, when Earth passes through the trail of cosmic grit left behind by a burnt-out comet now known as asteroid 2003 EH1. These particular meteors appear to emanate from a now-obsolete constellation known as Quadrans Muralis, or the Mural Quadrant. That's why they're known as the Quadrantids.

    This year was a particularly good year for the "Quads," in part because because the moon had set by the time the meteor shower really got going. This year's shower was reported to reach a peak ratae of roughly 80 shooting stars per hour in the wee hours of Jan. 4. Berkes benefited from a bonus: the faint glow of the zodiacal light. You can see it in the picture below:

    (c) Jeff Berkes Photography

    A green light pen was used to add "2012" as a signature to this photo of a meteor and the zodiacal light over the Florida Keys.

    "The triangular column of light you see is the zodiac lights, stretching up into the night sky before dawn," Berkes told me. "Light coming from the sun [while it's] well below the horizon is scattered by 'space dust,' making it visible in dark locations before sunrise and after sunset. It is definitely something I do not see every day."

    Berkes said he counted close to 100 meteors while he was out. He has mastered a technique called "light painting," which calls for adding illumination to a night scene during a long exposure. We featured one of his light-painting photos last fall during the Orionid meteor shower, and you can see the effect in these photo as well.

    "The '2012' in green is just another light-painting trick with a special green pen," he wrote. "The Quadrantids of 2012 were certainly better than 2011. I'm thinking it could be a sign that 2012 will be an even better year than 2011."

    I'm thinking the same... Or at least wishing it will be so.

    Check out Berkes' Flickr photostream or his Web site for additional visual treasures. You'll find more Quadrantid images at the SpaceWeather.com Web site. There could be still more night-sky sights on the way: SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips says a coronal mass ejection from the sun "might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field" on Saturday, sparking enhanced auroras.

    The next big meteor show is farther out on the schedule: The Lyrids are due to reach their peak on the night of April 22-23. 

    More meteoric marvels:

    Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

  • Meteor show sparks chills and thrills

    NBC's Brian Williams reports on the dazzling Quadrantid meteor shower.

    By Tariq Malik
    Managing editor, Space.com

    A dazzling display of "shooting stars" kicked off the 2012 skywatching season early Wednesday, thrilling amateur astronomers around the world with views of the Quadrantid meteor shower.

    Usually one of the most dependable meteor displays of the year, the Quadrantid meteor shower peaked at about 2:30 a.m. ET in a brief but eye-catching light show. Quadrantid meteors are the leftover crumbs of a shattered comet that broke apart centuries ago, NASA scientists say.

    To mark the meteor shower, Space.com invited readers to send in their photos of the event, and you answered in spades. From light-polluted cities to remote islands, skywatchers reported spotting some dazzling views of Quadrantid meteors.

    Roberto Porto

    This long-exposure photo by Roberto Porto shows the bright arcs of star trails and a bright Quadrantid meteor in the predawn sky over Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands.

    Veterinary surgeon Roberto Porto photographed the meteor shower from the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands. The view, he said, was stupendous. [Amazing 2012 Quadrantid Meteor Shower Photos]

    On Tenerife, the Quadrantids display peaked close to sunrise (local time), "so the peak was [awash in] twilight," Porto told Space.com in an email. "Also, the weather predictions were for high clouds this night, [but] we managed to capture a couple of genuine meteors."

    Tenerife is a volcanic island and home to Tiede, the highest mountain in Spain. Porto's photos show Quadrantid meteors streaking over Tiede and other peaks, with dark rock formations setting the scene.

    Roberto Porto

    A Quadrantid meteor is seen streaking across a cloud-spattered sky with shadowy rocks in the foreground in this dazzling photo by astrophotographer Roberto Porto taken on Jan. 4, 2012 on Tenerife Island in Spain's Canary Islands during the meteor shower's peak.

    According to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com and the International Meteor Organization, this year's Quadrantid display peaked at about 80 meteors an hour.

    This reporter spotted three meteors within a 20-minute period of observing from West Orange, N.J., before the frigid winter night forced a retreat back inside. In Florida, skywatcher Richard Hay was more resilient.

    Richard Hay

    Richard Hay sent this image of a Quadrantid meteor from Florida.

    "My wife and I ventured out into the frigid 26-degree Florida night this morning to catch the shower with our own eyes and were rewarded with about 20 or so bright Quadrantids over a 90-minute period," Hay wrote in a blog post.

    In Ozark, Ark., skywatcher Brian Emfinger reported seeing several meteors that — while not especially bright — were still impressive.

    "I caught one nice Quadrantid Earthgrazer that shot across much of the sky, but it wasn't super-bright," Emfinger told Space.com in an email. "It did leave a trail that was visible for about 15 minutes." Earthgrazers are meteors that occur low on the horizon, and can sometimes light up in dazzling fireball displays.

    Jonathan Simons

    Astrophotographer Jonathan Simons took this photograph of a Quadrantid meteor in Hudson, N.Y., on Jan. 4, 2012, at 4:30 a.m. local time.

    Unlike some of the more well-known annual meteor showers, such as the Perseid and Geminid displays late in the year, the Quadrantid meteor shower's peak lasts only a few hours. The Quadrantids and Geminids originate from the asteroid 2003 EH1, which astronomers suspect was once part of a larger comet that broke into pieces several hundred years ago.

    The small space rocks that become Quadrantid meteors hit the atmosphere at speeds of about 90,000 mph and burn up about 50 miles above the Earth, creating dazzling fireballs.

    The Quadrantid meteor shower is named for the constellation Quadrans Muralis (or Mural Quadrant, which was an early astronomy tool for observing stars), a pattern first observed in 1795 by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande. Quadrans Muralis is located between the better-known constellations of Bootes the Hersdman and Draco the Dragon.

    If you snapped an amazing photo the Quadrantid meteor shower or any other skywatching sight and would like to share it with Space.com, contact managing editor Tariq Malik at  tmalik@space.com.

    You can follow Tariq Malik on Twitter  @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter  @Spacedotcom  and on  Facebook.

    Copyright 2012 TechMediaNetwork.com. More from Space.com.

  • Jeff Berkes

    Photographer Jeff Berkes' picture of an Orionid meteor streak over Elverson, Pa., also features autumn leaves.

    Catch a falling star ... and fall colors

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    The Orionid meteor shower is one of the highlights of the fall season for skywatchers, generally sparking up to 15 meteor sightings an hour during its peak on Oct. 21-22. But how often is it that you experience the glories of the night sky and the glories of autumn at the same time? Photographer Jeff Berkes' picture of an Orionid meteor streak over Elverson, Pa., manages to provide exactly that sort of double autumnal delight.

    "The sky was crystal clear and a moody fog was rising off the lake when I set up my camera at 1 o'clock Saturday morning," Berkes told SpaceWeather.com. "The Orionids were streaking bright, and I counted a couple dozen during the night."

    This year turned out to be stellar for the Orionids: Reports gathered by the International Meteor Organization indicate that some observers could spot more than 25 meteors an hour during the peak. That bounty is also reflected in the photos that were sent in to SpaceWeather.com. To my mind, a picture taken by Mark Staples, looking across the fog on Little Lake Santa Fe in Florida, sets the proper mood for autumnal skywatching.

    If you missed Saturday's peak, never fear: The Orionid show will still be playing nightly, albeit at lower activity levels, from now until around mid-November. Two somewhat weaker meteor showers, the North and South Taurids, are kicking in as well, reaching peaks on Nov. 5-6 and Nov. 11-12. Then, on the night of Nov. 17-18, the Leonid meteor shower hits prime time.

    In past years, the Leonids created quite a stir, but this year the last-quarter moon will interfere with peak viewing. Fortunately, there are ways to maximize your viewing experience, even during a mediocre meteor show. To refresh your memory, here's a top-10 list of viewing tips:

    1. Pick a viewing spot far away from city lights, where the skies are likely to be clear and wide-open. Higher elevations are usually better than lower elevations.
    2. For help in site selection, you can check out the Clear Sky Chart website, which provides weather conditions for skywatching ... and links to popular viewing locations on a state-by-state basis. Your local astronomy club can also point you in the right direction.
    3. Bring a blanket or a chaise lounge to lie back on. Have layers of clothing available in case the air turns chilly at night. Bring snacks or drinks. Bring a flashlight so you can find your way through the dark.
    4. Bring a music player or radio if you need a diversion. But don't forget the earphones if you're going to be alongside other groups who may not appreciate your musical taste. Frankly, the best diversion is a deep philosophical conversation with your meteor-watching friends.
    5. Don't give up too quickly. Give your eyes plenty of time to get accustomed to the dark.
    6. Meteors associated with a particular shower (for example, the Orionids, the Taurids or the Leonids) appear to emanate from a particular point in a constellation (Orion, Taurus or Leo). But don't focus exclusively on that point. The best advice is to gaze straight up, taking in as much of the night sky as you can.
    7. The later you can stay up, the better. Generally speaking, meteor shows don't get good until after midnight, when Earth is turning into the stream of meteor debris.
    8. To get a better sense of what to expect at which time, use NASA's Fluxtimator. When you click in the right coordinates for meteor shower, date, location and viewing conditions, the Java-based calculator charts what the estimated meteor flux will be at different times.
    9. If you want to share your meteor sightings with the world via Twitter — and find out where the sightings are sizzling — the MeteorWatch website is the place for you.
    10. Even if you miss seeing the falling stars of the fall season, you can experience them vicariously by checking SpaceWeather.com. And there's always another show on the horizon, such as the Geminids (peaking Dec. 13-14).

    Update for 11:30 p.m. ET: In an email, Jeff Berkes provides further details about how he captured that amazing image:

    "I left my house in West Chester, Pa., shortly after midnight and arrived at French Creek State Park in southeastern Pennsylvania around 1 a.m. on October 22. Upon arrival, I was greeted by a crystal clear sky and a moody fog rolling off the lake. I was outside for only a couple of minutes before I saw my first Orionid meteor. I knew right then it was going to be a great night. The moon beginning its ascent around 2:15 a.m. worried me a bit, but the Orionids were flying high and bright. It was 3:27 a.m. when I captured this image, my first Orionid shot of the morning. I stayed up all night while taking over 500 photos and counted close to 30 meteors. I even had enough energy from a Wawa blueberry muffin to continue shooting through sunrise, before taking the 45-minute drive home at 9 a.m.

    "I used a technique called 'light painting' to illuminate the foreground subjects in this shot. This is where I use a high-powered flashlight to light up objects up to 1,000 feet away. I spent the first 30 minutes checking out different angles before settling on this location. I usually do not like shooting directly into the moon when shooting meteors; however, with it being very low and behind the trees, it was not a problem for this bright meteor to burn itself into my sensor. Light pollution for once actually helped me out here by adding some flavor to the horizon and separating the trees from the sky. Around 2 a.m., I anchored my tripod along the water’s edge facing out over the lake, while the constellation Orion was rising higher off my right shoulder in the southeastern sky. I fixed the exposure time for the flashlight and then started popping off shots until I eventually captured one of these majestic meteors."

    Berkes used a Nikon D3 camera with a 17mm lens. ISO: 800. Exposure: 25 seconds at f/2.8.

    More about falling stars and the fall season:

    Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Ron Garan / NASA via Twitpic

    NASA astronaut Ron Garan caught this picture of a meteor from the International Space Station.

    Astronaut catches a falling star

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    It was harder than usual this weekend to take in the full effect of the annual Perseid meteor shower, due to the glare from a full moon, but NASA astronaut Ron Garan didn't have that problem when he went meteor-watching from the International Space Station on Saturday. From Garan's Twitpic gallery, here's a rare picture of a Perseid shooting star as seen from above.

    The brownish-greenish arc above the edge of Earth's disk is caused by a phenomenon known as nightglow, primarily created by chemical reactions in the atmosphere. You can also see a sliver of one of the space station's solar arrays on the right edge of the picture. As Discovery News' Ian O'Neill notes, the meteor streak itself doesn't look much different from what you'd see on Earth, except that you're looking at it from above rather than from below.

    Garan has had lots of experience taking pictures from space during his four and a half months on the station, and you can see his handiwork in the Twitpic gallery as well as his own website, Fragile Oasis. For this photo, he suggests that he got some advice on camera settings from his son, Jake Garan. We're going to miss Ron's shooting when he returns to Earth on Sept. 8 aboard a Russian Soyuz craft, but if history is any guide, there'll be other space photographers to take his place on the station.

    More about the Perseids and space photography:

    Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.