Over the weekend, many of us enjoyed fantastic views of the annual Perseid meteor shower. It’s always a wonderful time to see these small bits of Comet Swift-Tuttle fall into Earth’s atmosphere and make their telltale streaks. Ohio astroimager John Chumack was busy observing the shower and photographing Perseids along with a great planetary conjunction. This image, made from John’s observatory in Dayton, shows several meteors along with Orion near the horizon, Venus to its left, Jupiter to the left of the Hyades cluster in Taurus, and the Pleiades cluster near the top. A bright Moon shines near the center of the image.

What a cool scene this was! John used a modified Canon Rebel Xsi and a 17mm lens at ISO 400 to take two 20-second exposures. The frame shows three meteors.

Way to go, John!