Any Guess Which Direction This Meteor is Heading?

December 26, 2017

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Photographer: Geir Birkeland Øye 
Summary Authors: Geir Birkeland Øye; Jim Foster

The bright stars of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), front and center, should give you a pretty big clue since its pointer stars point toward Polaris. I captured this meteor, created by a speck of cosmic dust entering the Earth's upper atmosphere, as it dashed through the sky above the Sunnmøre Alps, near Ørsta, Norway. Alternatively, maybe it's old Santa heading back home after an extremely busy night. Cassiopeia is at upper left.

Photo Details:  DSLR (Canon EOS 500D) camera; Samyang 8 mm fish-eye lens; ISO 800; 51 second exposure (camera set up for time-lapse photography -- with this exposure star-trails are avoided). Photo taken on November 29, 2017, at 01:58 a.m.