Eta Aquarid Debris

This meteor streak was part of the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower which peaked on the early morning of Friday, May 6, 2011. Meteors from this shower derive from debris ejected by the Comet Halley, last seen from Earth in 1986. In this image, looking southeast from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 4:30 AM, the meteor streak moves left to right above the constellation Sagittarius and directly through the cloudy mass of the Milky Way. The radiant (apparent point of origin) of this meteor shower lies in the constellation Aquarius toward the left. The small fuzzy area just below and left of the right side of the meteor streak is M8, The Lagoon Nebula. If you look closely you can see an aircraft lights pattern running roughly parallel to the meteor streak toward the top. This image was created by a 30-second exposure at f/3.5, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length.