The Perseids

One thing that has been missing from my astrophotography collection since I started a few years ago, has been a meteor shower. The dates are hard to miss if you spend any time online, but the weather was never suitable. Although the window often covers several weeks, they only peak over a couple of days.

Some meteor showers are better than others, with the top two probably being the Perseids in the summer and the Geminids in the winter. Mind you… some have been saying that the Perseids are no longer as reliable as they used to be, but I was determined to give them a go this year.

Associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, they appear to originate from the constellation Perseus, hence the name. Although meteors can be seen anywhere in the sky, the longest trails are visible at an angle of 90 degrees, so that meant finding a suitable foreground facing south, or south-west. In the end, I opted for my favourite hut on the Rye Harbour nature reserve. Thankfully, the weather played ball and so we spent a rather chilly few hours down there back on 11th August.

One or two meteors were clearly visible by eye and I knew instinctively they were in the field of view. Some, I wasn’t so sure and others were a complete surprise when I looked through the files the following day. I was pleased that the trails also showed the distinct pink and green colours, resulting from the presence of calcium and magnesium.

This image was taken over a period of two hours.