In Search of Perseid Meteorites

The cosmic magic of the annual Perseid Meteor shower is one of the heavens’ most dependable light shows. Each summer, as the earth passes through a stream of debris left in the wake of the Swift-Tuttle comet, the night skies are lit up by as many as 150 shooting stars streaking overhead per hour.

So whilst most of you were going to bed I headed to the top of my local mountain and set up a couple of cameras on time-lapse. I saw a few shooting stars and was hoping I'd captured one. On checking this morning I have captured something!

The blipfito is one one from the time lapse and is probably a plane, but at least it's visible as the other streak in the time lapse you really had to look for it!

The Swift-Tuttle comet orbits the sun every 135 years, but unlike the planets it has an almost vertical orbit.

Each year as the Earth completes its orbit, it ploughs through a tail of dust and ice left behind by the comet.

The meteors themselves are usually no larger than a grain of sand, but when they crash into the Earth’s atmosphere they are travelling at over one hundred thousand miles per hour! As they burn up they can appear green, white and orange.

I got into bed about 2am. I was delighted to see how well my first time lapse photo's had turned out. I hope you like this one.