Perseid meteor showers are an annual August phenomena that makes our skies look like there’s a legit intergalactic battle going on, thus providing a real camera-worthy spectacle. It’s only natural that photo enthusiasts and “casuals” gather around the observing hubs in hopes of catching the mighty sight. These are examples of those who succeeded.
image source: www.moses-images.com
Starting with a real “run-of-the-mill” shot, this one involves a lot of non-terrestrial stuff going on in the beautiful Wisconsinian sky during August 12, 2015. Besides a commercial airliner and a satellite passing, there’s another streak of light provided directly by a passing Perseids meteor. Taken by astrophotographer (a serious contestant for the most awesome hobby ever) Matthew Mosses, this shot amazes with the constant action taking place in the above-stratosphere levels.
image source: www.santacruzwaves.com
What could be better than setting out for an excursion with a noble goal to catch some great stills of these comet Swift-Tuttle accompanists (yes, Perseids form a cloud that voyages along with the comet). Well, photographer Shreenivasan Manievannan definitely set out for an excursion, only the goal was not to capture the blazing trail of Perseids. The man simply wanted to perpetuate the chilled-out vibe of the night next to Lake Jocassee. The trail of light suddenly manifested itself right between the clouds, as if somebody would try to improve the composition from above.
image source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This monochrome scene of a lonely trail blasting through the corridor of our orbit might as well be a supreme exercise in scratch art. Just think about it: a black paint cover where the little dots are scratched with a toothpick, and the gray light accent in the lower right being applied as the watercolor finishing touch! A great piece of atmospheric art! In reality, though, it’s a Perseids meteor over the Creamfields festival in Winchester, captured by Paul Hill.
image source: disgustingmen.com
Now for something that looks like the beginning of a studio logo reel before a really cheesy sci-fi B-movie from 1983 gets in full swing. Because of the neon-ish luminosity and overall lo-fi vibe this picture radiates, it looks beautifully artificial despite being a legitimate still from the Perseids shower of 2015. This time, the camera was stationed in Macedonia and operated by a team of amateur astronomers (Igor Nastoski, Stojan Stojanovski, and Kristijan Gjoreski).
image source: https://twitter.com
A picture by the Twitter user Adam Ruehmer lands here for its undeniable compositional qualities. Besides the obligatory blazing trail on the left, there’s a beautifully lit tree top and, as Adam himself claims, the Andromeda Galaxy somewhere on the right side of the image. We found it rather hard to pick it up, but you can try out your lucky charms!
image source: www.taringa.net
Now this is an absolutely marvelous one. The Perseid Meteor radiates a dazzling trail of blue whilst crossing the skyline of, as you might have guessed by the top of St Michael’s Tower, Glastonbury, Somerset, the same area that takes in about 150 000 music lovers on an annual basis. The view is simply celestial, like some once-in-a-millennia happening where the right disposition of the tower and the trajectory of the meteorite opens a stargate to distant places.
image source: www.abc.com
Somehow, pictures with an object in the foreground seem to be more expressive, presumably because of the stark contrast between the magnificence and mystery of the upper part and the stand still, calm, just-as-usual props of below. A lonely, lit-up (we assume a reflector was in use) Joshua tree of the Mojave Desert in Landers, California, witnesses a passing streak that’s prominently long and made all the more impressive due to the almost pitch-black hue of the background.
image source: https://twitter.com
Another Twitter user by the name of Zach Frailey caught this amazing photo, which features a lonely meteorite going totally parallel to the Milky Way. Once again, it has all the potential of legitimate wall art decor. A dreamy night, a dark, ambience-heavy flock of trees in the foreground...it just seems like a perfectly magical August night. And boy, weren’t we all lucky with the weather this year? The biggest broadcast on a crystal clean display!
image source: matadornetwork.com
So, it’s called “showers” despite no more than one streak of light per picture, thus far. Okay, the only way to encapsulate the true meaning of the term is switching to composite imagery. Astrophotographer Garett Evans did just that and gathered all 21 meteorites that flew over Muster Field Farm in New Hampshire. To be honest, it does look somewhat like an alien fleet dispatched to do some “research” or simply like a bunch of meteoroids incoming for no good consequences.
image source: xihuashe.lofter.com
In similar fashion to the third entry on this list, this one also seems to be almost a result of a hand-crafted visual piece. It’s natural minimalism, a flabbergasting pomp and power purple, with nothing more than a sharp trail of a star slicing the composition. This long exposure shot was taken over the beachside of Annavisos, near Athens. The fiery white is the meteorite directly in the process of burning in our atmosphere. It’s amazing to know that these can be the size of a rice grain (since they’re really more of comet dust) but are able to light up like fire from the Sun!
image source: www.telegraph.co.uk
A winner in the “texture” category, this photo was taken in Cathedral Gorge State park, Nevada (as the peculiar form of rock already suggests). The use of long exposure that catches Earth in its rotation has also captured a Perseid ignoring all the directional cues. Going full perpendicular, it add’s to the wonderfully sharp and angular nature of the photo.
