8/13/16: Perseid Meteor Showers from Castle Valley, UT

Image: Perseid Meteor over Castle Valley, UT

Took a 27-hour trip (door-to-door) to Utah to try and capture what had been reported as being an exceptional year for the Perseid Meteor Showers, due to Jupiter’s gravity altering the path of the comet fragments/dust that cause the yearly event. I had planned on catching both ‘peak’ nights, but the closure of I-70 at Glenwood until Thursday afternoon prevented a two-day trip, so I arrived Friday night just before sunset, and was home by 4 pm on Saturday.

Although the second night wasn’t as good as advertised, I did capture two meteors with persistent trains at 0308 and 0321 hrs; images and time-lapses of those will have to wait a day or two. I just now finished up the composite image from the 36 major meteors that I captured with a 15mm lens; those meteors were captured over 2 hours 32 minutes of shooting between 0153 and 0426 in the morning. The fading light on Castleton Tower is from the moon, which set just after 2 AM.

Perseid Meteor over Castle Valley, UT:

Perseid meteor over Castle Valley Utah
Perseid meteor shower over Castleton Tower, Castle Valley, Utah.

A crop from the main meteor in question, showing the gases slowly moving away from the location of the meteor. These gases could be seen moving with the atmosphere for more than 30 minutes afterward (time-lapse to follow).

Perseid Meteor Persistent Train detail
Perseid Meteor Persistent Train detail, Castleton Tower, Utah
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