Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 August 18 
Posted on 08/18/2016 6:29:46 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 August 18
Explanation: The 2016 Perseid meteor shower performed well on the night of August 11/12. The sky on that memorable evening was recorded from a perch overlooking Yosemite Valley, planet Earth, in this scene composed of 25 separate images selected from an all-night set of sequential exposures. Each image contains a single meteor and was placed in alignment using the background stars. The digital manipulation accounts for the Earth's rotation throughout the night and allows the explosion of colorful trails to be viewed in perspective toward the shower's radiant in the constellation Perseus. The fading alpenglow gently lights the west face of El Capitan just after sunset. Just before sunrise, a faint band zodiacal light, or the false dawn, shines upward from the east, left of Half Dome at the valley's far horizon. Car lights illuminate the valley road. Of course, the image is filled with other celestial sights from that Perseid night, including the Milky Way and the Pleiades star cluster.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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I wish these APOD would go into the equipment and software used. I’d guess was was stacked with Deep Sky Stacker but it doesn’t say for sure.
Solid cloud cover that night here in GA.
We missed it in Wisconsin for the same reason. :(
BUT - tonight should be clear and we have the Full ‘Barley’ Moon (yes, beer related, nearing harvest) and the Packers are pre-season at Lambeau Field, so It’s All Good. :)
Fond memories of getting out the lawn chairs and watching the Perseids each year with the family, when I was a kid.
Me too. Good memories.
Nice picture.
Had a nice dark vantage point in NC (Raleigh ‘burbs) and saw quite a few between 3 and 5am. At some points as many as 2 to 3/min. Some feint but a number of them were very bright and left a trail that would quickly dissipate. Cool stuff...
The 2002 (?) Leonids looked like this X100.
Either cloudy or almost full moon for the perseids last several years along with lots of street lighting - haven’t seen a good display in years.
2002 Leonids were less spectacular due to a very bright full moon.
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 October 30 
Explanation: Will this year's Leonid meteor shower be as good as last year's? No one knows for sure. Possibly, however, in the waning nighttime hours of November 18 and lasting throughout much of November 19, sky gazers across the globe may get their last chance ever to see a meteor storm. Although the glare of a nearly full Moon will likely hide the presence of many faint meteors, plenty of bright meteors may well streak across the other side of the sky. The above image was taken during 2001 as Leonids stormed over Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia. The image is actually a digital composite of 22 separate frames, including one at sunset. The Gum Nebula is visible on the upper left.
It was the 2001 Leonids, you were right! I saw them from Mt. Ikoma near Osaka, Japan.
oh wow... wish I was there with you. Must have been a spectacular sight.
It was below freezing then, even though it was November, and we had to make a fire in a barrel to keep warm. It was covered with clouds as well until 4:30 AM or so, but when the cloud cover opened it was as if the sky had shattered and was falling towards us. It wasn’t like an intermittent Persid shower where someone sees a meteor every minute or so - it was a true shower of meteorites.
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