Perseids Peak Day One

This multi-colored meteor streak was the first of three bright meteors I captured from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during the pre-dawn hours on Saturday, August 12, 2017--part of the Perseids Meteor Shower. This particular meteor--captured at 4:10 am CDT--featured a trailing vapor trail, but the trail was rendered invisible to the camera by the glare of the waning gibbous moon, whose light wash can be seen in the image at right. I selected this open area of the park with a clear view of the northeast sky and a wooded area to my back to block some of the obnoxious moonlight. Temperatures at this time were a surprisingly chilly 52 degrees F, requiring me to wear a light jacket. But not a single bug bothered me! The meteor is seen streaking through the constellation Auriga in this image. Above Auriga is the constellation Perseus--the radiant of the meteor shower. Below right of Perseus is the Pleiades, and below that the constellation Taurus. At bottom center of the image, just above the tree line is the -3.98 magnitude planet Venus, and at bottom right is the partially obscured constellation Orion.

4:14 am. Meteor number two, just left of the planet Venus at bottom left.

4:30 am. Meteor number three, just above and left of Venus.

Composite image of all three meteor images.

Stacked image of all shots taken during this session. A total of 156 20-second exposures were used, starting at 3:43 am and ending at 4:36 am. The settings for each exposure was f/2.8, 200 ISO, 11mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

Closeup of very top image. Multi-colored Perseid meteor streak in the constellation Auriga. 4:10 am.