Ancient Dust

For those who didn't have the opportunity to view the Perseids Meteor shower recently, I give you 3 hours of the best meteors my camera captured from the NE skies in the Snowy Range of Wyoming. Composited into one image, you can see them radiate out from the constellation Perseus. It was quite a thrill staying up all night witnessing a sight I have been waiting for many years to see.

Like many folks, I'm totally fascinated by comets and meteors. It's hard to believe these dramatic huge bolts of light are nothing more than comet dust; not much bigger than a sand grain in size. But when when meteor dust hits our atmosphere at 130,000 mph and burns up, the light show is quite evident. It's also difficult to fathom this dust can be several thousand years old! And the Swift-Tuttle comet that is the source for the meteors, is estimated to be billions of years old. Ancient dust indeed.

Best viewed on black in a dim environment.

Enjoy!
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