I had various discussions with friends on Facebook regarding plans to photograph this year's Perseid meteor shower from really dark sky locations, but sadly the Pacific Northwest weather conspired against us, with conditions remaining pretty poor all around the peak of activity.
I really wanted to try and get a shot of something, so I headed to Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver. This isn't a dark sky location at all, but I was hopeful I'd be able to pick something up.
A lot of clouds were coming in and I didn't have a great view to the North, but the Big Dipper was nicely visible through the clouds, and with the slopes of Bowen Island, about 2km away, on the horizon.
I dialed in some settings and left the camera to take some shots, while I looked at the stars. After about 45 minutes of faint meteor streaks, I was fortunate enough to capture this bright streak directly above the Big Dipper, and centrally framed in my shot.
I considered heading to another location, but the clouds were getting thicker, so I decided to call it a night and head home. Not quite the dramatic result I was hoping for, but better than nothing!
I gave the stars of the Big Dipper a bit of a boost in post-production to highlight them, but otherwise this is as the camera captured it.
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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Beautiful. I woke one time last night and one the night before when it was briefly not completely cloudy but I just couldn't drag myself out of bed. Glad you took it for me!
Wow - it's brilliant. We've been lucky with clear skies for the last two nights. We went outside last night and stayed for 20 minutes or so but didn't see anything exciting.
I went out two nights running and the sky was clear but there was a lot of light pollution I saw nothing! Many thanks for this shot ax I can see what I missed! Wonderful capture! Fav!
FAV! You really nailed it. I was out photographing the meteor shower, too, and we had a fabulous view of the Dipper rising, but I couldn't nab any meteors. This shot is fantastic!
Brilliant photo on so many levels! Love the big dipper, position of the meteor, stars, and even the lighter sky works for me because of the silhouettes.
Love that you were able to capture the meteor shower.
FAV