Last year August (2020), together with Nancy, David, and Friedhelm we drove high up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, along Hwy 108 in California. We settled at Donnells View Point, close to the Sonora Pass. I employed two cameras. One was pointed towards the “right side” of the Perseus Constellation, including the Andromeda Galaxy. I hoped to get longer meteoroid light streaks that way. The second camera was pointed about 180 degrees away, towards the South, including Saturn and Jupiter as well as the Milky Way. Here, I hoped to get even longer light streaks.
When tiny meteorites spin off the Swift-Tuttle Comet, those meteorites flying into our earth’s atmosphere, mostly Mesosphere, ionize air molecules generating positively charged ions that quickly grab a nearby free electron to neutralize itself. By doing so, excess energy is released as recombination glow that we then can see as light streak or “meteor shower”.
I took hundreds of photo over the course of a couple hours. But, last year my skills handling Photoshop was still evolving and I was not yet up to overlaying the photos properly. Well, this year I am much more advanced using Photoshop. And because this year (2021) there is so much smoke in the air from the Dixie Fire, hardly any meteor showers are visible and so I can finally show what I got from 2020.
First Photo: Perseids – Meteor Shower – to the “Right” of the Perseus Constellation
Second Photo: Perseids – Meteor Shower – towards the South, towards Saturn & Jupiter and Milky Way
