Hartley Debris Field Spectacle

The Comet Hartley 2 (103P) was not itself visible without a telescope on Wednesday night, November 3, 2010, but some of its effects were. This 23-second exposure captured the streak of a meteor (left) in the western sky--part of the comet's debris field which passed over the Earth from November 2-3. The radiant point for this two-night activity was the constellation Cygnus, seen pointing upward at lower left. Cygnus' brightest star, the 1.25 magnitude Deneb, is located just above and right of the meteor streak. The meteor was traveling right-to-left from the camera's perspective. The brownish smudges at right are small drifting clouds moving into the field of view. Clouds had nearly covered the entire sky just a little over a half an hour earlier but moved out quickly. This image was taken from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 11:05 PM. Shot at f/3.5, 18mm focal length, and an ISO rating of 500.