Night of the Perseids

The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift–Tuttle. The meteors are called the Perseids because the radiant from which they appear to hail, lies in the constellation Perseus. The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in activity between 9 and 14 August, depending on the particular location of the stream. During the peak, the rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour. As with many meteor showers the visible rate is greatest in the pre-dawn hours, since more meteoroids are scooped up by the side of the Earth moving forward into the stream, Most Perseids burn up in the atmosphere while at heights above 80 kilometres creating a dazzling light show. Hanle at 14500ft was chosen as the location for this timelapse video as this is possibly the only location in India devoid of major cloud cover in the monsoonal month of August. I am thankful to the Indian Institute of Astrophysics for providing access to their observatory. Special techniques of high frame rates slowed down in post, frame dragging and S&Q motion on multiple Sony A7s3 cameras were used to slow down the motion of the meteors so they can be viewed better, for otherwise they are just a flash or a blink-and-you-miss-it event.