Perseid, Aurora and NLC - Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA

Today I'm featured as Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA with my photo of a Perseid, Aurora and Noctilucent Clouds. It was taken during last year's Perseid meteor shower. That night was the first night of the season I saw the Northern Lights and it was also the last night I saw some Noctilucent clouds for that summer. This astrophotogrpaher hat trick will be hard for me to repeat but one can always hope for another chance for the upcoming Perseid shower that peaks tomorrow.

Perseid, Northern lights and Noctilucent clouds

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Aurora, NLC and a Perseid/Bolide

Me and a couple of friends went out to watch the yearly Perseid meteor shower. After 01:00 Swedish summer time we started to see some faint aurora above some really nice NLC. This is the first aurora I've seen for this season and a new record for me seeing an aurora as early as 13th of August.

In the shot you can also see some Noctilucent clouds and a bright Perseid.

A bright Perseid over some aurora and Noctilucent clouds

Here's a collection of Perseids I captured last night.

Several bright Perseids in this composite image

After a while watching the aurora I started filming the beautiful sky, I turned around and headed back to our campfire and kept filming. Suddenly I saw how the sky turned green in the corner of my eye and I got to see one of the biggest bolide I ever seen and to my luck I got it on this film.

Sorry for the wind noise in the beginning and the bad language in the end :-)



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Perseid meteor shower 2015

Tomorrow it's time for one of the best yearly meteor showers, the Perseid meteor shower. The best time to view the Perseids is when the sky is the darkest and it's best to look at the darkest area of the sky. Another tip is to lay on you back so you can comfortable can see the entire sky. Bring a sleeping pad and warm clothes.

Since the moon is new on August 14, it's perfect conditions for watching the meteor shower with a really dark sky. The Perseid meteor shower has a zenith hourly rate (ZHR) of around 100, that's 100 meteors per hour.

Here's a shot from 2013 showing a bright Perseid.As you can see, lying on the ground is a great way to spot meteors.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Last night it was the peak of the yearly Perseid meteor shower. Me and two friends went out to see how many meteors we could count. The Moon was very bright so the conditions wasn't perfect.

After three hours we had counted 34 meteors. I also got to see the brightest meteor I've ever seen. First I thought it was a Perseid, but after studying it closer, it can't be since it doesn't come from the Perseid radiant. Anyhow, it burned for 4-5 seconds and left a long trail of smoke and you can see it in the photo with the bent horizon. Half way it broke up in two parts. All in all a good night and I also got a curious little Fox that was checking out my gear :-)

Perseiderna / Perseid meteor shower

Snart närmar sig en av årets astronomiska höjdpunkter, meteorregnet Perseiderna. Maxima sker natten mellan måndag och tisdag, då beräknas antalet meteorer per timma ligga på ca 100 stycken. Denna bild visar en meteor jag fotograferade natten till idag, så ge er gärna ut redan ikväll för att försöka se/fotografera några meteorer. Bästa sättet att se dom är att titta mot den del av himlen som är mörkast.

Detta fenomen kallas också ofta för stjärnfall. Det sägs också att när man ser ett stjärnfall får man önska sig något, så förbered en lång önskelista inför måndag kväll, det kan bli så många som 100 önskningar i timman.

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A Perseid meteor from last night. Maximum will occur on the night between August 12 and 13 with up to 100 meteors per hour.