August 13, 2015
The Perseid Meteor Shower happens every year around this time and is one of the more notable meteor showers throughout the year. However, given that it happens during the dead of summer, viewing can be difficult. High levels of humidity in the atmosphere can lead to clouds or the air being murky, which can make seeing the meteors hard and capturing them on camera even harder. However, we were very fortunate that a cold front had moved through in the prior days, drying and clearing things out. It's usually best to view these showers shortly before sunrise; however, my friends and I were fans of late nights vs. early mornings, so we went out a little before midnight. The images below were taken south of Starkville, MS while facing south. The lighter area to the right in the images is a combination of the faintly visible Milky Way Galaxy and light pollution from Louisville, MS. Each of the images contains one meteor. The bottom most image is a 9-image composite. I was excited about the second one, although I wish it had been more in the frame. Commonly called "fireballs", the streak this meteor left in the night sky was visible for several seconds after it burned up.