Perseid Meteor Shower 2013: Images from Around the World

The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks tonight, but already astrophotographers have been out, enjoying the view of a little cosmic rain. This weekend provided good views for many, as these images and videos will attest. We’ll keep adding more images as they come in, but enjoy these wonderful images we’ve received so far. Our lead image is a wowza from Peter Greig from the UK. He traveled to an island off the coast of England and found exactly what he was looking for.

“This is the exact image that I imagined and planned to come home with from that trip,” Peter said via Flickr. “It is a composite of stacked images (or pieces of images). I chose the clearest background image to use for the starry sky then chose the best light painted foreground and layered it over my background. I then went through all of my images and gathered all the shots that contained a meteor, cut them out and layered them on top of my background image to demonstrate the radiant point to which the Perseid Meteors originate.”

Just gorgeous! If you’re looking to get out tonight and see the Perseids for yourself, here our “explainer” from David Dickenson of how to best see this meteor shower!

See more from our astrophotographer friends below:

Perseid Meteor and the Milky Way, in the Red Desert of Wyoming, August 11, 2013. Credit and copyright: Randy Halverson/dakotalapse.
Perseid Meteor and the Milky Way, in the Red Desert of Wyoming, August 11, 2013. Credit and copyright: Randy Halverson/dakotalapse.
Early Perseids from the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, Maine, taken August 5, 2013. Credit and copyright: Steven Coates.
Early Perseids from the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, Maine, taken August 5, 2013. Credit and copyright: Steven Coates.

This video is from John Chumack, who captured 142 Perseids from my backyard in Dayton, Ohio! “My video cameras actually caught many more than I had seen visually,” John said via email, expressing a little disapointment in this year’s Persieds, “from past years experiences I was expecting more Perseids!”

A persistent Perseid on August 11, 2013. Shot with Canon T1i/500D with Samyang 8mm fisheye. F5.6 / 3200ISO / 30s. Credit and copyright: darethehair on Flickr.
A persistent Perseid on August 11, 2013. Shot with Canon T1i/500D with Samyang 8mm fisheye. F5.6 / 3200ISO / 30s. Credit and copyright: darethehair on Flickr.
A very bright fireball from the Perseid meteor shower, along with the Otto Struve Telescope from the McDonald Observatory in Texas and the Milky Way. Credit and copyright: Sergio Garcia Rill/SGR Photography.
A very bright fireball from the Perseid meteor shower, along with the Otto Struve Telescope from the McDonald Observatory in Texas and the Milky Way. Credit and copyright: Sergio Garcia Rill/SGR Photography.

You can read more about this image by Sergio Garcia Rill and the ‘persistent’ neon fireball at his website.

A Perseid meteor and the constellation Cassiopeia seen over Winchester, UK. Credit and copyright: Paul Williamson.
A Perseid meteor and the constellation Cassiopeia seen over Winchester, UK. Credit and copyright: Paul Williamson.

Now more:

Can you spot a total of 6 meteors in this image? (two are very faint). This is a composite of 3 pictures stacked, each picture taken with a Canon 550D @18mm 30s Exposure at ISO 3200. Credit and copyright: Andrei Juravle.
Can you spot a total of 6 meteors in this image? (two are very faint). This is a composite of 3 pictures stacked, each picture taken with a Canon 550D @18mm 30s Exposure at ISO 3200. Credit and copyright: Andrei Juravle.
2013 Perseids Radiant Point: A composite shot of Perseid meteors emanating from the meteor shower radiant point. This composite features 9 total Perseid meteors. Credit and copyright: Scott MacNeill.
2013 Perseids Radiant Point: A composite shot of Perseid meteors emanating from the meteor shower radiant point. This composite features 9 total Perseid meteors. Credit and copyright: Scott MacNeill.
A Perseid meteor and the Milky Way. Credit and copyright: TheMagster3 on Flickr.
A Perseid meteor and the Milky Way. Credit and copyright: TheMagster3 on Flickr.
Perseid meteor shower (and equipment!) taken on August 11, 2013 near Monte Romano, Lazio, Italy, with a Nikon D5200. Credit and copyright: marcopics3000 on Flickr.
Perseid meteor shower (and equipment!) taken on August 11, 2013 near Monte Romano, Lazio, Italy, with a Nikon D5200. Credit and copyright: marcopics3000 on Flickr.
Perseid Meteor Shower and Milky Way image shot in Hampstead, North Carolina on a Canon 7D @10mm 30s f/4 ISO 2500.  Credit and copyright: K.C. Goshert.
Perseid Meteor Shower and Milky Way image shot in Hampstead, North Carolina on a Canon 7D @10mm 30s f/4 ISO 2500. Credit and copyright: K.C. Goshert.

New images added 8/13/13:

Perseid meteor captured by Emilia Howes, aged 7, at Lacock in Wiltshire, England.
Perseid meteor captured by Emilia Howes, aged 7, at Lacock in Wiltshire, England.
Perseid Meteors over Ancient Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains of California. This is a composite shot of 73 meteors, aligned as they were captured according to where they were against the stars. Credit and copyright: Kenneth Brandon.
Perseid Meteors over Ancient Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains of California. This is a composite shot of 73 meteors, aligned as they were captured according to where they were against the stars. Credit and copyright: Kenneth Brandon.
Perseids over Joshua Tree. This is a composite image composed of 180 stills from a static timelapse sequence, aiming towards the  North Star. Taken on August 9, 2013. Credit and copyright: Sean Parker/Sean Parker Photography.
Perseids over Joshua Tree. This is a composite image composed of 180 stills from a static timelapse sequence, aiming towards the North Star. Taken on August 9, 2013. Credit and copyright: Sean Parker/Sean Parker Photography.
'My first-ever photo of a meteor!' said astrophotographer Dawn Sunrise on Flickr.  Congrats!
‘My first-ever photo of a meteor!’ said astrophotographer Dawn Sunrise on Flickr. Congrats!
Perseid meteor photographed on August 11, 2013 at 0255 EDT through broken clouds, Weatherly, PA. 20 second exposure, ISO 1600 using a Samyang 14mm lens. Credit and copyright: Tom Wildoner.
Perseid meteor photographed on August 11, 2013 at 0255 EDT through broken clouds, Weatherly, PA. 20 second exposure, ISO 1600 using a Samyang 14mm lens. Credit and copyright: Tom Wildoner.
One Perseid meteor before the clouds rolled in over Blackrod, England, August 12, 2013. Credit and copyright: TheDaveWalker on Flickr.
One Perseid meteor before the clouds rolled in over Blackrod, England, August 12, 2013. Credit and copyright: TheDaveWalker on Flickr.
Perseid meteor on August 12, 2013. Credit and copyright: Stephen Rahn.
Perseid meteor on August 12, 2013. Credit and copyright: Stephen Rahn.
Perseids Meteor 8/11/2013 El Dorado Lake, Kansas. Credit and copyright: Tom Wright.
Perseids Meteor 8/11/2013 El Dorado Lake, Kansas. Credit and copyright: Tom Wright.

More images added 8/15/13:

Meteor seen over Green Bay, Wisconsin on August 14, 2013  around 12:30 am central time. Photographer Michelle Madruga said,  'I used my measly Canon T3i and my 18-55mm lens set at 18mm. During my 30 sec exposure, this huge asteroid shot across the sky! I was lucky it was in my camera's view!' Credit and copyright: Michelle Madruga.
Meteor seen over Green Bay, Wisconsin on August 14, 2013 around 12:30 am central time. Photographer Michelle Madruga said, ‘I used my measly Canon T3i and my 18-55mm lens set at 18mm. During my 30 sec exposure, this huge asteroid shot across the sky! I was lucky it was in my camera’s view!’ Credit and copyright: Michelle Madruga.
Perseid meteor seen over the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, taken with a Canon 7D 18-55mm. Credit and copyright:  Micah Holtgraves.
Perseid meteor seen over the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, taken with a Canon 7D 18-55mm. Credit and copyright: Micah Holtgraves.
Perseid meteor. Credit and copyright: Val Camp.
Perseid meteor. Credit and copyright: Val Camp.
Perseid meteor on August 13, 2013 seen over Kootwijkerzand, at the ‘de Hoge Veluwe’, one of the last dark spots in the Netherlands. This picture was taken with an EOS 60d with a 11-16 2.8 tokina lens. Credit and copyright: Freek vd Driesschen.
Perseid meteor on August 13, 2013 seen over Kootwijkerzand, at the ‘de Hoge Veluwe’, one of the last dark spots in the Netherlands. This picture was taken with an EOS 60d with a 11-16 2.8 tokina lens. Credit and copyright: Freek vd Driesschen.

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4 Replies to “Perseid Meteor Shower 2013: Images from Around the World”

  1. There was a very large (much larger and brighter than the rest) and bright meteor last night in the Western region, it lit the sky up with brightly multicolored colored glow, not just a streak but it looked as if it may have made it to the ground.

  2. Thanks for putting together these pictures. However, you should change the title to “Perseid” instead of “Persied”.

  3. YES! Thanks for the update and pics Nancy! I got out Sunday night for a look–see. Arrived up on the mountain at 10pm, got set up by 10:30 and watched meteors in a perfectly clear and mosquito-less sky. Soon there after the Moon and then Saturn set..this gave me time to check and realign my finder scope – which was off. There was good seeing at the horizon and excellent seeing at the zenith. I like! I stayed until 2:00am. The night went like this… 50% of the time I was at the eyepiece visiting my ‘good old summer time’ friends through my 4″ S/C. The rest of the time I was laying almost horizontal in a camp chaise lounge. I Saw 52 Perseids! 8 probables and 10 sporadic….. #15 was really BRIGHT! And all of them extremely fast! #27 was a double with one fairly bright one followed immediately but offset from a second. I saw 3 doubles. #29 skipped in and out then in again! I saw 2 do this. Bottom line is that I saw 52 Perseids watching an est. 50% of the time. This means there were probably twice as many visible?

    My telescope time was spent with eyepieces I made> I compared them to each other and against store bought. My new favorite is one I made from a 96mm video cam lens. This one has a very wide field of view. It’s so wide in fact, that it’s kind of like looking into a ‘crystal ball’? There is some minor flaring with bright objects and the focus range is long, but once I dialed it in, it’s ability to pick out dark clouds in the galactic arms and see the larger emission features – was impressed cuz I LIKE them lil ol pin prickly swarms of zillions and zillions of stars I can see with this eyepiece as I ‘wonder around’ the galaxy!

  4. Well done Emilia Howes. Not only did you capture a Perseid, but you may have taken a picture of a nova – we just can’t quite see it yet.

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