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The Lyrid

 

The Lyrid meteor shower was peaking during the last two nights. With favorable weather forecasts and a new moon, I decided pack my gear, take the kids and head for one of my favorite spots in Switzerland. A friend decided to join us on short notice. Luckily, there was enough space available for social distancing.

 

With a peak rate of about 5 to 20, the Lyrid shower is not extremely strong, but some Lyrids can be very bright.

 

The fireball in the frame was one of the most beautiful shooting stars I have ever seen. Not only was it extremely bright, it also burst into hundreds of silvery stars and left a smoke trail that was visible for about a minute.

 

Unfortunately, my main camera was pointing in a different direction, but my time lapse camera captured the event. When I checked the time lapse exposures, I found traces of the smoke trail the next 26 frames. With exposures of 45s, this sums up to almost 20 minutes!

 

I therefore decided to process the time lapse frame with this memorable Lyrid. The exposure time for this untracked shot was optimized for a time lapse movie and therefore longer than recommend for single exposures, leading to some star trailing, but I nevertheless think the image nicely conveys the mood of this memorable night.

 

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

 

EXIF

Canon EOS 7D mk ll

Samyang 10mm f/2.8

45s @ ISO6400

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Uploaded on April 23, 2020
Taken on April 23, 2020