Anyone who thinks astronomy is boring need only look at the reactions of two Illawarra stargazers as they watch a meteor shower known as the Geminids.
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David Finlay and Rudi Vavra trained two cameras on the sky in the early hours of last Monday to capture the celestial spectacle.
And with this being the golden age of the selfie, naturally they trained another camera on themselves.
But it’s more than some silly season indulgence. Mr Finlay enjoys performing some astronomy class-like commentary to go with his Clear Skies TV video work, which he usually publishes on YouTube.
His commentary includes information on the phenomenon being witnessed, but also on how best to capture it on camera, and how he decides on the best vantage point.
Mr Finlay says Geminids, which radiates from a spot aligned with the constellation of Gemini, is a trusty beast. It occurs each December as the Earth crosses the orbital path of asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
‘‘There are quite a lot of annual meteor showers during the year, but, to be honest, most of them will leave you disappointed, frustrated and tired,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s not the case with the Geminids, although you will be tired by the end of it.
‘‘At its peak we were seeing more than two meteors per minute, and a lot of them were spectacular fireballs.
‘‘The reason why we now put together videos of our astronomy-chasing events is to show people just how exciting these things can be sometimes, as well as educating people as to how they can view these events themselves.
