APOD: Full Moon Perseids (2022 Aug 18)

[APOD Robot]

Full Moon Perseids

Explanation: The annual Perseid meteor shower was near its peak on August 13. As planet Earth crossed through streams of debris left by periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle meteors rained in northern summer night skies. But even that night's nearly Full Moon shining near the top of this composited view couldn't hide all of the popular shower's meteor streaks. The image captures some of the brightest perseid meteors in many short exposures recorded over more than two hours before the dawn. It places the shower's radiant in the heroic constellation of Perseus just behind a well-lit medieval tower in the village of Sant Llorenc de la Muga, Girona, Spain. Observed in medieval times, the Perseid meteor shower is also known in Catholic tradition as the Tears of St. Lawrence, and festivities are celebrated close to the annual peak of the meteor shower. Joining the Full Moon opposite the Sun, bright planet Saturn also shines in the frame at the upper right.

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[Ann]

Full Moon Perseids Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

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Beautiful composition! But I wonder about this:

APOD Robot wrote:

Joining the Full Moon opposite the Sun, bright planet Saturn also shines in the frame at the upper right.

Is that really Saturn? I think I can see the Pleiades at far right, and I think - think, mind you - that I can spot the Great Square of Pegasus to the lower left of the bright planet. But if so, then the planet in this position is Jupiter, not Saturn.

Jupiter is of course a lot brighter than Saturn in our skies, and would stand out more.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Three nights of meteors from Colorado. 300 of them... mostly Perseids. The Moon interfered, of course, but has been removed from the composite.
_

[daddyo]

Wow 300, nice capture. A hint on how you did that, any particular software? Maybe you wrote something to find flashes in frames for stacking?

[Rauf]

Full Moon Perseids Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

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Beautiful composition! But I wonder about this:

APOD Robot wrote:

Joining the Full Moon opposite the Sun, bright planet Saturn also shines in the frame at the upper right.

Is that really Saturn? I think I can see the Pleiades at far right, and I think - think, mind you - that I can spot the Great Square of Pegasus to the lower left of the bright planet. But if so, then the planet in this position is Jupiter, not Saturn.

Jupiter is of course a lot brighter than Saturn in our skies, and would stand out more.

Ann

I don't think that is Pleaides. Pleaides angular size is not that small, compare it to the moon at top.
I believe that is indeed Saturn, and the stars to left are Deneb Algedi and Nashira from Capricornus.

[XgeoX]

Three nights of meteors from Colorado. 300 of them... mostly Perseids. The Moon interfered, of course, but has been removed from the composite.
_
2022-Perseids-(all)_lg.jpg

Fantastic work Chris, thanks for sharing!
I’m curious about what kind of scope and imager you used? Did you use a light intensifier? I also like how you put the compass marks on the image.
Great image!

Eric

[Holger Nielsen]

I agree with Ann: This is a wide angle shot going from one horizon to the opposite one, and the Moon is heavily overexposed. It is indeed the Pleiades which can be seen on the right side of the image at the height of the tower. Capella is visible as the bright star just right of the tower. Higher up we see stars belonging to Perseus´left foot, and just above the tower most of the W of Cassiopeia can be seen in an upright position. Even higher are stars belonging to Andromeda; the Andromeda Galaxy can be seen as a faint smudge. Above this lies the square of Pegasus. So the planet can be no other than Jupiter.

[Rauf]

I agree with Ann: This is a wide angle shot going from one horizon to the opposite one, and the Moon is heavily overexposed. It is indeed the Pleiades which can be seen on the right side of the image at the height of the tower. Capella is visible as the bright star just right of the tower. Higher up we see stars belonging to Perseus´left foot, and just above the tower most of the W of Cassiopeia can be seen in an upright position. Even higher are stars belonging to Andromeda; the Andromeda Galaxy can be seen as a faint smudge. Above this lies the square of Pegasus. So the planet can be no other than Jupiter.

I see, I think I was mistaken. The radiant is behind that tower, so I guess that is Pleaides in the right corner. And if that is the case, It is not Saturn up there. Strange though.

[XgeoX]

Full Moon Perseids Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

---

Beautiful composition! But I wonder about this:

APOD Robot wrote:

Joining the Full Moon opposite the Sun, bright planet Saturn also shines in the frame at the upper right.

Is that really Saturn? I think I can see the Pleiades at far right, and I think - think, mind you - that I can spot the Great Square of Pegasus to the lower left of the bright planet. But if so, then the planet in this position is Jupiter, not Saturn.

Jupiter is of course a lot brighter than Saturn in our skies, and would stand out more.

Ann

This whole image is vexing. I dialed up the time and location in Sky Safari and Stellarium and nothing adds up.
First off the shower radiant is separated by a good 100+ degrees in azimuth from the moon and is also higher in the sky. What appears to be the Pleiades shouldn’t be there it should be way over to the left of the castle out of the image. Going by the Moon and Saturn there is only one star cluster there and that is a globular one m30 and the cluster on the image is obviously an open cluster.
Maybe I am missing something obvious or I just don’t know what I am doing with the programs but something is missing.
Can any body post an illustration putting this image in relation to a wider sky shot because I am stumped!

Eric

[XgeoX]

Okay I think I might have figured it out…

Sorry I can’t get the image to show. It’s just not my day…
He must have used a very wide angle lens.
Ann you are absolutely correct, that is Jupiter not Saturn!
Well done.

Eric

[Holger Nielsen]

Here is an annotated image showing what I think I have identified. The bright object near the Moon at 10 o'clock could be Saturn. I have been using Starry Night for identification.

[Chris Peterson]

This whole image is vexing. I dialed up the time and location in Sky Safari and Stellarium and nothing adds up.
First off the shower radiant is separated by a good 100+ degrees in azimuth from the moon and is also higher in the sky. What appears to be the Pleiades shouldn’t be there it should be way over to the left of the castle out of the image. Going by the Moon and Saturn there is only one star cluster there and that is a globular one m30 and the cluster on the image is obviously an open cluster.
Maybe I am missing something obvious or I just don’t know what I am doing with the programs but something is missing.
Can any body post an illustration putting this image in relation to a wider sky shot because I am stumped! :(

This image was made from hours of data. The only way you can do that when there's a full Moon is to cut out the individual meteors from each image that captured one before you stack them, and then composite those with one or more images capturing the Moon, the tower, maybe some stars. And depending on how you isolate the meteors, you may leave stars in those exposures, as well (for instance, if you cut out the area around the Moon instead of tightly cutting out the meteor). So it makes perfect sense that there is no clear star pattern to be seen, just a few individual recognizable asterisms, the positions of which can't be compared because they were captured at different times. The bright object to the right of the Moon is quite properly placed to be Saturn (Jupiter was clear over on the other side of the Moon at the time), and it makes sense it was captured in the same exposure that captured the Moon.

[XgeoX]

This whole image is vexing. I dialed up the time and location in Sky Safari and Stellarium and nothing adds up.
First off the shower radiant is separated by a good 100+ degrees in azimuth from the moon and is also higher in the sky. What appears to be the Pleiades shouldn’t be there it should be way over to the left of the castle out of the image. Going by the Moon and Saturn there is only one star cluster there and that is a globular one m30 and the cluster on the image is obviously an open cluster.
Maybe I am missing something obvious or I just don’t know what I am doing with the programs but something is missing.
Can any body post an illustration putting this image in relation to a wider sky shot because I am stumped!

Eric
This image was made from hours of data. The only way you can do that when there's a full Moon is to cut out the individual meteors from each image that captured one before you stack them, and then composite those with one or more images capturing the Moon, the tower, maybe some stars. And depending on how you isolate the meteors, you may leave stars in those exposures, as well (for instance, if you cut out the area around the Moon instead of tightly cutting out the meteor). So it makes perfect sense that there is no clear star pattern to be seen, just a few individual recognizable asterisms, the positions of which can't be compared because they were captured at different times. The bright object to the right of the Moon is quite properly placed to be Saturn (Jupiter was clear over on the other side of the Moon at the time), and it makes sense it was captured in the same exposure that captured the Moon.

Thanks, that helps a lot!

Eric

[orin stepanek]

What can I say? Beautiful Photo!

[Chris Peterson]

Three nights of meteors from Colorado. 300 of them... mostly Perseids. The Moon interfered, of course, but has been removed from the composite.
_
2022-Perseids-(all)_lg.jpg

Fantastic work Chris, thanks for sharing!
I’m curious about what kind of scope and imager you used? Did you use a light intensifier? I also like how you put the compass marks on the image.
Great image!

It's an ordinary analog video camera with a fisheye lens, pointing straight up. Video goes to a computer which captures frames with movement. I end up with 300 composite frames containing meteors (and a lot more individual ones that capture the video of the meteors moving). In Photoshop I isolate the meteors and stack the frames. It's pretty simple. You can see videos of some of the brighter fireballs at http://www.cloudbait.com/shower.php?ms= ... 22_per.dat