Astronomy Picture of the Day - Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way

NASA ^ | 2 Aug, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Taken on July 29 and July 30, a registered and stacked series of exposures creates this dreamlike view of a northern summer night. Multiple firefly flashes streak across the foreground as the luminous Milky Way arcs above the horizon in the Sierra de Órganos national park of central Mexico. The collection of bright streaks aligned across the sky toward the upper left in the timelapse image are Delta Aquariid meteors. Currently active, the annual Delta Aquariid meteor shower shares August nights though, overlapping with the better-known Perseid meteor shower. This year that makes post-midnight, mostly moonless skies in early August very popular with late night skygazers. How can you tell a Delta Aquariid from a Perseid meteor? The streaks of Perseid meteors can be traced back to an apparent radiant in the constellation Perseus. Delta Aquariids appear to emerge from the more southerly constellation Aquarius, beyond the top left of this frame. Of course, the bioluminescent flashes of fireflies are common too on these northern summer nights. But how can you tell a firefly from a meteor? Just try to catch one.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[telescope115]

Beautiful. Lots going on……

[mabarker1]

Thanks for sharing. That’s really cool. Our God is AMAZING with All of His Creations.

[Puppage]

Glorious!

[Puppage]

Amen

[Verginius Rufus]

Would the Delta Aquariid meteors be older or younger than the Perseid meteors?

I remember that years ago there was talk about the age of Aquarius but I don't think they ever figured out how old Aquarius is.

[mabarker1]

✅🙏🙏

[HandyDandy]

Magnificent!

[Big Red Badger]

I’d try a little RAID...

[mabarker1]

Not following Your comment ? RAID ?

[Big Red Badger]

Sorry...
Fire Flys seem to annoy me.

[gnickgnack2]

I did something similar years ago following a thunderstorm...called lt “Lightning. Bugs.”