The Perseids are a major annual meteor shower usually peaking around August 12-13. At it's peak, up to 100 meteors per hour can be seen from dark skies. The meteors originate from Comet Swift-Temple, a periodic comet with an orbital period of ~133 years. The comet last passed through the inner solar system in 1992. Perseids are best known for their reliability and for their high rate of speed when entering the atmosphere.

An unusually dry weather pattern in Southern New Mexico combined with a first quarter Moon made for good viewing of the Perseid meteor shower in 2024. The shower did not dissappoint. I joined a small group of friends around 2:30 am (local time), and we counted over 50 meteors during the next few hours. I set up my Canon T2i with a 14mm Canon lens and took 25-second exposures every 30 seconds. I captured about 20 (mostly faint) meteors with the camera. Toward the end of our session, the bright meteor (shown above) streaked by. The Pleiades and the California Nebula are also visible in the image. The meteor left a noticeable vapor trail that persisted for nearly 10 minutes. A few frames are shown below.

A movie showing the progression of the vapor trail (for over 5 minutes) can be found here. (1.2Mb mp4 file).

Data for these images was acquired on the morning of August 12, 2024 around 5 am (local time). The field of view used for the top image is shown in the Imaging Details box. The image at top is reduced in size (to roughly 25% scale). Clicking the image above will open up a larger, version.

Imaging Details
Imaging Date	12Aug 2024 ~10:00 UT
Imaging Location	Las Cruces, NM (32.3, -106.7)
Constellation	n/a
Imaging Optics	Canon 14mm f/2.8
Imaging Camera	Canon T2i (modified)
Imaging Filter(s)	n/a
Exposures	25" @ ISO 1600
Guiding	Fixed tripod
Image Processing	Sub alignments were performed using Nebulosity; Photoshop CS5 was used to process the subs. Topaz DeNoise AI was used to reduce noise and sharpen the image.