                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                               2018 December 22
                                      [2]
                            A Cold December Night
                Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Petr Horalek [4]

Explanation: They say Orion always comes up sideways [5] , and he does seem to
on this cold December night. The bright stars of the familiar northern winter
constellation lie just above the snowy tree tops surrounding a cozy cottage
near the town of Ustupky in the Czech Republic. But Gemini's meteors also seem
to rain on the wintry landscape. The meteor streaks are captured in exposures
made near last Friday's peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower [6] . They
stream away from the shower's radiant above the trees, near the two bright
stars of the zodiacal constellation of the Twins. Comet Wirtanen, a visitor to
planet Earth's skies, is visible too. Look for its telltale greenish coma [7]
near the stars [8]  of the seven sisters.

                   Tomorrow's picture: when the Earth rises

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1812/2018_12_14_Geminidy_Chata-met_cut_1500px.png
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?page_id=20
  [5] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44273/ the-star-splitter
  [6] ap181215.html
  [7] ap181220.html
  [8] ap031227.html
  [9] ap181221.html
  [10] archivepix.html
  [11] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [12] lib/aptree.html
  [13] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [14] calendar/allyears.html
  [15] /apod.rss
  [16] lib/edlinks.html
  [17] lib/about_apod.html
  [18] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181222
  [19] ap181223.html
  [20] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [21] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [22] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [23] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [24] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [25] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [26] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [27] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [28] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [29] http://www.mtu.edu/
