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I have captured in Manlleu, in the Osona region, these images of the Geminid shower last night, a spectacle to which it seems that Venus also wanted to join.
Venus is the second planet in the solar system in order of proximity to the Sun and the third in terms of size in ascending order after Mercury and Mars.
It is named in honor of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Being the second brightest natural object after the Moon, it can be seen in a clear night sky with the naked eye, like last night from Torelló.
But the real show has been the Geminids, a meteor shower that takes place every year between December 7 and 17. In Spain, it seemed to have reached its maximum splendor from December 13 to 14, but last night was also spectacular, as the photographs show.
Its radiant, the point in the sky from which meteors appear to emanate, is located in the constellation Gemini, hence its name.
The Geminid shower is one of the most active of the year, with a zenith hourly rate (THZ) that can reach 120 meteors per hour. This means that, under optimal conditions, up to 120 shooting stars can be seen crossing the sky every hour.
The Geminid rain has been overwhelming in a sky full of stars over the churches of Manlleu, especially over the Puig-agut sanctuary, one of the most photogenic in Catalonia.
In one of the snapshots we can see the spectacle of the Geminids through the circumpolar or startrails (star trail), which is a type of photography that uses long exposure times to capture the apparent movement of the stars in the night sky due to the rotation of the Earth.
