Today's Image

Favorite photos from 2020’s Perseid meteor shower

Composite photo of many thin white streaks raining down from one point in a dark sky.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Stefan Nilsson of Kristianstad, Sweden, captured the photos to create this composite image across 4 nights of observing the 2020 Perseid meteor shower. He wrote: “In total, I got about 30-40 shooting stars in 45 minutes, but only managed to squeeze less than 30 into this composite since I have aligned all meteors in the correct position from where they originated.” Thank you, Stefan!
Starry sky with one brilliant, narrow white streak paralleling the Milky Way.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Lisa Manifold was at Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona, on August 12 when she captured this dramatic photo of a meteor streaking along the Milky Way. The 2 bright “stars” on the left side of the photo are really planets, Jupiter (brighter and to the right) and Saturn (fainter and to the left). Thank you, Lisa!
Sky with low, bright moon and several radial white streaks from high above.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | John Ashley captured this image on August 13, 2020. He said: “In this composite image, 5 of 6 meteors captured in the northeastern sky over 4 hours (22:00 to 02:00) can be traced back to the Perseid meteor shower’s radiant. (Individual meteor frames were rotated and aligned to appear on the appropriate star backgrounds.) The 34% crescent moon is rising beneath Pleiades while the Andromeda galaxy is visible beneath the upper right meteor. Viewpoint is from Rexford, Montana, looking across Lake Koocanusa towards the Whitefish Mountain Range. Both before and after moonrise, I saw and photographed many meteors towards the west and north and fewer meteors towards the east. Trees blocked my southerly view.”
Over dark hills, Milky Way and bright streak much brighter toward lower end.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Christy Turner captured this image on August 13, 2020. She said: “An amazingly clear night in the Kananaskis, Alberta [Canada], area, as this well-timed fireball reflected off Barrier Lake.”
In greenish sky, bright streak with small, brilliant pop at the lower end.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Garth Battista, of Halcottsville, New York, took this photo on August 13, 2020. He said: “A Perseid meteor explodes over the Catskill Mountains. We’ve had so much rain and cloud cover lately that I despaired of seeing a single Perseid. But one second of blazing space rock made up for all that.”
In starry sky crossed by two power lines, a thin red vertical streak.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Terhune in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, took this photo on August 13, 2020. He said, “Finally I captured a decent Perseid meteor, the day after the peak, but they were still very active. I witnessed a very bright meteor that left a smoke trail that lasted for about 10 sec, camera was pointed at different direction so I did not capture it.”
A flash of light across a dark sky with constellation Orion visible.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Holland, Sr., in Lake Gibson-Lakeland, Florida, captured this image on August 12, 2020, at 5:56 am. He said: “After reading up on the Perseids meteor shower article in my daily EarthSky email I ventured out at 0300 AM and photographed it until civil twilight conditions kicked in. I have always dreamed of capturing a meteor near Orion (my favorite constellation) and low and behold it happened. Venus was nearing its highest point in the eastern sky and can be seen to the left.”
Thin white streak pointing at bright dot in a dark sky above palmettos.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jorge Colomer in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, took this photo on August 12, 2020, at 4:45 a.m. He said: “I love meteor showers and that great space. Very happy to get this Perseid meteor flying into planet Venus and above some palm trees.”
Blurry clouds in a sky with very many stars and a white streak on the lower right.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Photo by Aaron Robinson in Blackfoot, Idaho, 3:06 a.m. on August 12, 2020.
Starry black sky with thin white streak in upper left.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Riste Spiroski captured this Perseid meteor from Ohrid, Macedonia, on August 10, 2020. Riste said, “The photo was shot at around 11:30 pm, earlier than we ever photographed a meteor shower. We had to go earlier because the moon was rising at around 12:15 am and we only had like 4 hours to enjoy the dark sky. We were photographing for less than 2 hours and I can say that the peak is going to be great. We saw more than 10 good meteors in less than an hour.”
Thin white streak in a starry sky above a town set in the hills.
Steve Pauken captured a Perseid meteor on Saturday (August 8, 2020) over Bisbee, Arizona.
Meteor streaking above a treeline.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Phil Seeney in Cambridge, U.K., caught this meteor on August 6, 2020. He wrote: “Encouraged by your articles, I thought I would try ‘astrophotography’ for the first time. Trying to capture a Perseid, but caught this other meteor passing through the Great Bear. I did manage 2 other Perseids as well!” Thank you, Phil! Perhaps you know about the other meteor shower that runs along concurrently with the Perseids? The meteors radiate from a different part of the sky. The shower is called the Delta Aquariids.

Bottom line: Photos of the Perseid meteor shower in August 2020.

Posted 
August 15, 2020
 in 
Today's Image

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