A Kiwi photographer managed to snap some photos of last night’s Geminid meteor shower – before clouds covered the night sky.
The Geminid appears yearly around late November and mid-December. Last night and early this morning were the shower's peak, flying across the sky from the Gemini constellation.
Stargazers across the country made their way outside, looking up to try and catch a glimpse of the light show between bouts of cloud cover.
Among them was astro-photographer Brendan Larsen, who managed to spot a few meteors near New Plymouth before the clouds rolled in.
“I set up at about 10:30pm and I was trying to do a time-lapse, so I was just shooting continuously, another shot, another shot, I was looking and looking and looking, I didn't see anything for an hour and a half,” he told 1News.
“And then, about midnight, I saw one, and then about a minute later, I saw another one, and about a minute later, I saw another one, and about a minute later, I saw another one, and they all came from the same radiant point.
“It was pretty cool,” he said.
He managed to capture around four meteors before the clouds ruined the show.
Many of the photos also include satellites — but he said it can be hard to tell the difference on film.
Larsen said this shower was different from others he’d photographed.
“The way that the materials were going and, and coming out from that radiant point was kind of a little bit like watching a portal into another dimension.
“Or the hyperdrive from Star Trek when they hop into warp speed.
“Maybe it was my imagination, but it was just bizarre. Different to other meteors I’ve seen.”
Photographers from Global Meteor also managed to capture a flurry of meteors shooting across the sky, adding them to a collage.
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