August 14th, 2014: Comet Swift-Tuttle.

[SPUCK]

300 shots. Must've tired out his finger.

[Gravdigr]

Look at the length of the star trails near the horizon. That's a loooong exposure. At least 15 minutes, maybe 30. How did he get 300 long exposure shots between 1-3am?

Maybe just the one long exposure shot of the comet/stars, and stack the others?

[glatt]

The comet part was a much shorter exposure, or it would be making a long curved trail too, parallel with the star trails. Comets are basically fixed points in the sky like stars, not to be confused with meteors, which are fast.

Edit: And those star trails look about 3 hours long to me.

[Spexxvet]

I got all excited, until I found out that Swift-Tuttle came through in 1992 and has a 133 year orbit. That's an old pic

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

I got all excited, until I found out that Swift-Tuttle came through in 1992 and has a 133 year orbit. That's an old pic

I had to do a bit of digging, but there would seem to be some veracity in this account:

Perseid Meteor Shower, As the darkness set in last night, star gazers throughout the world looked up at the sky in the hopes of catching a glimpse the spectacular Perseid meteor shower.

Despite patches of cloud cover and a bright supermoon, the shower provided some stunning views as it lit up the skies with streaks of up to 100 shooting stars per hour.

The annual shower occurs every August and is caused by debris from the huge Swift-Tuttle comet falling into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Matthew Power, a British photographer, was able to capture the first pictures of the Perseid meteor shower which reached a peak early this morning.

Mr Power managed to get a good view of the display at Grafham in Cambridgeshire at about 2.30BST this morning.

‘The conditions weren’t great, but I’m absolutely thrilled I managed to see the meteor shower and get a picture,’ Mr Power said. ‘The moon was still very bright which made it hard.’

Dr Bill Cooke from Nasa’s Meteoroid Environment Office has described Perseids is the undisputed ‘fireball champion’ of meteor showers.

‘We see more fireballs from Swift-Tuttle than any other parent comet,’ he said.

The Perseids, which peak during mid-August, are considered to be the best meteor shower of the year.

With very fast and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long ‘wakes’ of light and colour behind them as they streak through the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Perseids are one of the most plentiful showers (50-100 meteors seen per hour) and occurs with warm summer nighttime weather, allowing sky watchers to easily view the shower. Perseids are also known for their fireballs. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and colour that can persist longer

Another image shows a meteor streak over the sky during the Perseid meteor shower at the Maculje archaeological site near Novi Travnik in central Bosnia on August 12, 2014.

Meanwhile Photographer Robert Canis from Kent was up early photographing between the hours of 1am and 4am BST taking 300 photos in a time lapse

The result was an image that showed the comet, with a blue trail which appeared at 2.54am BST with other star trails circling the North Star caused by Earth’s rotation.

For those who missed the display last night, there is a chance to catch it again tonight in Britain, Europe or North America.

http://kpisp.net/perseid-meteor-shower-2.html

There's several more excellent photos here:

Daily Mail

[glatt]

Ah, a news reporter who doesn't know the difference between a comet and a meteor. Probably an english major.