Perseid Meteor Shower 2009

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If you missed the meteor shower last night, I have you covered. The time-lapse video will be uploaded a bit later.

Most meteor shower particles are thought to be debris left behind by comets. The Perseids' parent comet, Swift-Tuttle, was last closest to the Earth late in the last century and will not return until early next century.

This shower is called the Perseids because the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus. This meteor shower is one of the fastest moving, with meteors ripping into the atmosphere at 60 kilometers per second. (In other words, really fast.) These particles were cast off by the shower's parent comet nearly 400 years ago in 1610.

Taken between 12:40 AM until 3:00 AM Mountain Time on August 12, 2009. This was my first ever attempt at star trails, so be kind. :) This image consists of approximately 300 20-second exposures, one second apart. Nothing has been done to this shot, other than combining the images together.

I'm not sure that I would consider this a shower. More like a meteor sprinkle.

If you prefer, find it on facebook here.