‘Ghostly green’ comet and meteor shower light up skies

The sky was lit overnight, with a gigantic, “ghostly green” comet and meteor shower putting on a show for budding astronomers.

Christmas has come early for budding astronomers, with not one but two space spectacles lighting up the skies.

The Christmas Comet appeared near the Taurus constellation at around 12am overnight and was visible to the naked eye by 2am.

The Geminid meteor shower appeared on Thursday and Friday night, with photographer Steven Sandner capturing a beautiful photo of shooting stars over the Grampians in Victoria.

Astronomers are hoping for more sightings of the “ghostly green” and fuzzy comet throughout the weekend.

Social media users shared photos of their sightings, although cloudy skies made it harder for comet-watchers in Australia.

TITLE: Custom HTML CAPTION: View this post on Instagram Geminid meteor shower 2018 - quite the spectacle! #grampians #australia #geminid #star #zeiss #sony #spectacular #sky #tree A post shared by traveller 💙 (@steven.sandner) on Dec 13, 2018 at 10:32pm PST

December's Comet Wirtanen / Cometa de Diciembre Wirtanen via @apod https://t.co/UfJZ53ZVor #astrophotography #astrofotografia #comet #Cometa #Wirtanen #46P #Comet46P #FollowtheComet #apod pic.twitter.com/uxXDFDJtfD

— Only Astro Photo (@onlyastrophoto) December 14, 2018

This is very impressive photo! #Comet 46P Wirtanen &ŸŒ²
Taken by Tommy Eliassen on December 12, 2018 Norway#NASA, #ESA, #Comet46pwirtanen pic.twitter.com/XHn4wqyPA7

— Space Tech Research☮️ (@PMagnetE) December 13, 2018

Pleiades in the upper left, Comet 46P/Wirtanen the green glow mid botton - through the clouds last night - a small stack of exposures from the backyard in #BTV #VT, 60.0 sec at f/2.0, 85mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art 016, Canon EOS 6D Mark II, Mike Beganyi 2018 pic.twitter.com/1wWTLHwBOc

— Mike Beganyi (@mike_btv) December 13, 2018

Look at this amazing picture! It is a beautiful gift for me from @bernagoz and other Wise Men at @oavda_social, in Aosta Valley (Italy). I chose it as header image. A special #FF from space to them! #FollowTheComet pic.twitter.com/Jzc5bkiJKf

— Christmas Comet (@46PWirtanen) December 9, 2018

Image of #Comet46p /Wirtanen early AM 12/12/18 from Sandy Hook, VA west of Richmond. Beautiful clear sky with Milky Way & a few Geminid meteors also visible. @rvanews #rvawx #vawx pic.twitter.com/PPpZ6fiz7B

— Bill Hark (@WTHark) December 12, 2018

Is dit m? #46PWirtanen #comet @EstherHanko ? pic.twitter.com/Pat17VQ4HD

— Teun Boschloo (@teunboschloo) December 12, 2018

So this was really quick'n'dirty, static camera, 5 second exposures at 50mm. But you can see that it's there, if you tap the image and zoom in a little!@SavingOurStars #46PWirtanen pic.twitter.com/vak7EqZnzk

— Allen Versfeld (@uastronomer) December 5, 2018

ANU astronomer Dr Brad Tucker said the Christmas Comet would be close to the constellation known as Orion, or the Saucepan, in the east.

“The green colour is coming from the gas that is coming off the comet,” Dr Tucker told AAP.

“There is a bunch of ice on it and methane — it’s essentially like a dirty snowball and so when it goes around the sun it melts … and is a steamy, stinky green glow.”

The skies cleared just in time for the Geminid meteor shower.. the last, and strongest, meteor shower of the year!

My friend up in the Cottonwoods said he’s seen about 10 so far this morning. Our sunrise is 7:44 this morning pic.twitter.com/3uoWiYs2Kk

— Allison Croghan (@AllisonCroghan) December 14, 2018

Shooting stars flashed across the sky as Earth passed through the tail of the 3200 Phaethon asteroid. They look impressive from the ground but the falling stars are actually just small rocks that have broken off from the asteroid before burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“They’re about the size of a grain of sand, or even a small pebble and they’re travelling tens of thousands of kilometres an hour,” Dr Tucker said.

This picture taken from Paris region with a telescope on December 3, 2018 shows the 46P/Wirtanen comet as it will come closer to Earth on December 16, 2018.

While a telescope or binoculars will grant a better view of the Christmas comet, the meteor shower will be visible to the naked eye from anywhere in Australia.

Observers in Australia were expected to need binoculars or a telescope to catch the Christmas Comet, but the meteor shower should have been visible from even major cities, barring the presence of clouds.

It is a rare chance to catch a glimpse of the comet, which appears only once every five years.

“It’s very accessible, you don’t need anything special, you just need the night sky,” Dr Tucker said.

Did you see the space spectacle? Let us know in the comments below, or email [e-mail].