Perseid Meteors over Stonehenge on August 9, 2024. Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

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  1. ojosdelostigres on

    Astronomy Picture of the Day August 12

    [https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240812.html](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240812.html)

    Article about the image and how it was made

    [https://www.space.com/perseid-meteor-shower-stonehenge-astrophotography](https://www.space.com/perseid-meteor-shower-stonehenge-astrophotography)

    The Perseids, one of the year’s most prolific meteor showers, peaked this week, raining dozens of “shooting stars” per hour through Earth’s skies.

    Some lucky stargazers caught a double feature of meteors and dazzling auroras, which were triggered by a spree of powerful solar eruptions earlier in the week. Others, like U.K.-based astrophotographer Josh Dury, hunted for meteors at thematically appropriate locales — namely, the prehistoric astronomical monument Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.

    Stonehenge, built about 5,000 years ago to align with the sun on the summer solstice, is one of the most popular and intriguing astronomical monuments in the world.

    To capture his stunning composite image of Perseid meteors streaking over the famous stones, Dury snapped photos from the monument grounds for three and a half hours. He then combined 43 individual exposures of shooting stars with a deep image of the background sky, where the central band of the Milky Way slashes toward the horizon.