A photographer captured an image of meteors soaring through the sky above Royston.

The Geminid meteor shower, which is active between December 4 and 27, peaked last week.

David Hatton, of Royston, filmed the meteors each night over trees in his garden, as part of an international scientific endeavour called UKMON (UK Meteor Network) which is open to contributions from members of the public.

The project aims to record and identify all meteors over the UK, especially the rare larger ones that survive their fall to earth as fireballs and land as meteorites.

Studies of the composition of these meteorites can offer scientists insight into the likely origins of the solar system.

The meteor shower which David captured above Royston is associated with the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which orbits the sun.

Despite the brightness of the moon, at the peak of the shower almost 100 meteors per hour were logged at some sites in the UK.

Each meteor shower has a radiant, which is the location in the sky where all the meteors would appear to come from if we could see them approaching.

The Geminid shower's radiant is the constellation Gemini, which gives the meteor shower its name.

After photographing the shower, David created a compound image from video frames of the best meteor trails he recorded over his garden.

They include not only Geminid meteors, but also a Sigma Hydrid meteor and various meteors of unknown origin, which are known as 'sporadics'.

David said: "It’s a fun hobby to attempt to see and film meteors throughout the year, and always worth it when you know that you are using new technology to produce intriguing images of the night sky and show what wonders people might be missing when they are asleep!"

UKMON is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary. The group encourages amateur astronomers to gather data as part of a citizen science project.

Participants are invited to set up their own meteor detection cameras, which they can buy from UKMON, and then join the team of contributors.

For more information or to get involved go to https://ukmeteornetwork.co.uk.