APOD: Perseids over Meteora (2013 Aug 10)

[APOD Robot]

Perseids over Meteora

Explanation: The two bright meteors flashing through this night skyscape from August 7 are part of the ongoing Perseid meteor shower. In the direction indicated by both colorful streaks, the shower's radiant in the eponymous constellation Perseus is at the upper right. North star Polaris, near the center of all the short, arcing star trails is at the upper left. But also named for its pose against the sky, the monastery built on the daunting sandstone cliffs in the foreground is part of Meteora. A World Heritage site, Meteora is a historic complex of lofty monasteries located near Kalabaka in central Greece.

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[mtbdudex]

Love the colors in the streaks, nice capture!

[Boomer12k]

The Monastary is where James Bond film, "For Your Eyes Only", was filmed....great...

Really nice view, and Meteors Too.....

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[neufer]

What if Curiosity makes it to the top
of Mt. Sharp & finds a Martian Mon-astery

<<The Metéora (Greek: Μετέωρα, lit. "middle of the sky", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" — etymologically related to "Meteorite") is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece. Most of these monasteries are perched on high cliffs and accessible by staircases cut into the rock formations. Studies suggest that the pinnacles were formed about 60 million years ago during the Paleogene Period. The rocks are composed of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate. A series of earth movements pushed the seabed upwards, creating a high plateau and causing many fault lines to appear in the thick layer of sandstone.

Continuous weathering by water, wind and extremes of temperature turned them into huge rock pillars, marked by horizontal lines which geologists maintain were made by the waters of a prehistoric sea. Greek historian Herodotus wrote in the 5th century BC that local people believed the plain of Thessaly had once been a sea. If this was accurate, there was most probably an inundation at the end of the last Ice Age, around 8000 BC. However, he failed to mention the rocks of Metéora and they are not recorded in the writings of other ancient Greek authors.>>

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