Nauset Light House and Perseid Meteor Shower, Cape Cod
This image is taken at Nauset Lighthouse in Cape Cod.A lot went into planning the image.
I had to wait for the moon to set at around 10pm to scout the location and get a nice dark sky.
Next, if you look closely in the image, you could see a cluster of stars on the right. These are the Pleiades, just to the right of the constellation Perseus. That’s where the meteors originated from.
This image is taken exactly at 2:30AM, last Friday night, when the Pleiades are behind the lighthouse to the right.
I waited for this alignment to happen as opposed to simply taking a starry background.
The meteors are a composite taken from the same night at the same location. If you look closely you will see the green color in the meteors.
Fun fact: They say when a meteor is green or teal it’s made of magnesium!
Lastly a note on how I built the image. The foreground is a 300s (five min) exposure at 24mm f/8. I cleaned up the foreground and got rid of a lot of the hot pixels. This was very challenging to do.The background starts taken at exactly the same time as the foreground are a 13s exposure at 24mm f/2.8.The meteors are a composite of 4 images selected from 245 images over a 1 hour period from 1-2AM at the same location that night.
I hope you like this image and the effort that it took. I personally plan to print this on metal.
This image is taken at Nauset Lighthouse in Cape Cod.A lot went into planning the image.
I had to wait for the moon to set at around 10pm to scout the location and get a nice dark sky.
Next, if you look closely in the image, you could see a cluster of stars on the right. These are the Pleiades, just to the right of the constellation Perseus. That’s where the meteors originated from.
This image is taken exactly at 2:30AM, last Friday night, when the Pleiades are behind the lighthouse to the right.
I waited for this alignment to happen as opposed to simply taking a starry background.
The meteors are a composite taken from the same night at the same location. If you look closely you will see the green color in the meteors.
Fun fact: They say when a meteor is green or teal it’s made of magnesium!
Lastly a note on how I built the image. The foreground is a 300s (five min) exposure at 24mm f/8. I cleaned up the foreground and got rid of a lot of the hot pixels. This was very challenging to do.The background starts taken at exactly the same time as the foreground are a 13s exposure at 24mm f/2.8.The meteors are a composite of 4 images selected from 245 images over a 1 hour period from 1-2AM at the same location that night.
I hope you like this image and the effort that it took. I personally plan to print this on metal.
This image is taken at Nauset Lighthouse in Cape Cod.A lot went into planning the image.
I had to wait for the moon to set at around 10pm to scout the location and get a nice dark sky.
Next, if you look closely in the image, you could see a cluster of stars on the right. These are the Pleiades, just to the right of the constellation Perseus. That’s where the meteors originated from.
This image is taken exactly at 2:30AM, last Friday night, when the Pleiades are behind the lighthouse to the right.
I waited for this alignment to happen as opposed to simply taking a starry background.
The meteors are a composite taken from the same night at the same location. If you look closely you will see the green color in the meteors.
Fun fact: They say when a meteor is green or teal it’s made of magnesium!
Lastly a note on how I built the image. The foreground is a 300s (five min) exposure at 24mm f/8. I cleaned up the foreground and got rid of a lot of the hot pixels. This was very challenging to do.The background starts taken at exactly the same time as the foreground are a 13s exposure at 24mm f/2.8.The meteors are a composite of 4 images selected from 245 images over a 1 hour period from 1-2AM at the same location that night.
I hope you like this image and the effort that it took. I personally plan to print this on metal.