Perseids

Given it's such a manky day today, I've gone with a shot that was taken in the small hours. The Perseids meteorite shower peaked last night, and for a time the sky was clear and we sat outside with something warming and watched the night sky.

Ok, as much of the night sky as we could see. Even in our village the light pollution has increased in the last ten years (Ten years ago, I managed to have all the streetlights turned off after midnight, but new developments have effectively nullified that night sky boon).

It is still remarkable, even with these eyes, to see just how much of the galaxy is visible up there. And how many satellites there are! They slide across the sky leaving well defined scratches across each image, defined by their sharpness and distinct from the red and green streaks of passing airliners.

Overall, in about 300 eight second exposures, I only got a couple of decent meteorites. One other was far brighter although it flew off the top of the image, but I like the colours in this one, as it went through the entire spectrum from blue to red.

This is just one exposure, and the noise is apparent. I ran dozens through a star stacker, but realised their primary purpose is to remove transients from the scene! Bright stars and no airplanes, no satellites and no meteorites!