Two Bright Ones

Ya snooze ya lose. The early morning hours of Wednesday, August 12, 2015 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa provided crisp, clear, weather conditions for the Perseids meteor shower, one day ahead of its peak. And indeed I went outside for a look and witnessed several bright meteors in the short time I was out there. Weather forecasts for the following few days called for the same, so I opted to photograph the shower during its "official" peak the following night. As I staggered outside after 3:15 am on Thursday, August 13, a high veil of cirrus clouds covered all but the brightest stars. Momentary letups in the cloud cover allowed for two of the only three meteor streaks I saw to be captured by my camera. The farthest left meteor in the image above was shot at 3:59 am (and combined with the image containing the other meteor), photographed at 4:04 am. The meteor's point of origin--the radiant--emanated from the namesake constellation Perseus, located out of the picture above. At right is the constellation Auriga. Image looks northeast from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids. It is a 30-second exposure at f/3.5, 500 ISO and 18mm focal length. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.