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Catching a Meteor Shower in Goodness Knows Where, South Africa

Somewhere between Wellington and Paarl in the dark hours of early morning a few nights ago – Robyn Gwilt and a couple of other photographers were enjoying “the smell of Africa and sheep, and the cold wind making our cheeks glow pink!” They had set out from Cape Town at 11 pm to find and photograph […]

Somewhere between Wellington and Paarl in the dark hours of early morning a few nights ago – Robyn Gwilt and a couple of other photographers were enjoying “the smell of Africa and sheep, and the cold wind making our cheeks glow pink!”

Meteor shower, South Africa
“Somewhere between Wellington and Paarl in the dark hours of early morning – and the smell of Africa and sheep, and cold wind making our cheeks glow pink!”

They had set out from Cape Town at 11 pm to find and photograph the Geminid meteor shower that was visible in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, radiating from near two of the bright stars in the Gemini constellation.

“Driving from Fish Hoek to Goodness-Knows-Where with a bunch of photographer friends on Saturday midnight, to catch Meteor Showers and the Milky Way, was very worthwhile,” says Robyn.

Meteor shower, South Africa
The exhilirating cold, the smell of sheep poo, and photographing South Africa’s incredible night-sky!

“Although it was pitch dark, city lights from many kilometres away still managed to bleed into the photographs.

Meteor shower, South Africa
Moonrise at about 0230

“The moon rose at about 0200, and we were loving the exhilirating cold, the smell of sheep poo, and just being on some random farmer’s land, photographing our incredible night-sky!” she says.

Meteor shower, South Africa
A fellow photographer shooting the night sky

Security did check up on them, but “decided we weren’t EFF land-grabbers and left us alone.”

Please see more of RobynG’s photography here.