Three Parts of the Night Sky
April 25, 2017
Photographer: Marcelo Zurita
Summary Authors: Marcelo Zurita; Jim Foster
In this one photo I was able to capture cloud-to-cloud lightning (at bottom), a starry sky above the storm clouds and a dazzling meteor. It was taken from a rural area in Brazil's eastern-most state of Paraiba. My attention was actually on the distant storm on the horizon but as I snapped the shutter a meteor passed through the field of view. The lightning is at an altitude of perhaps 40,000 ft (12,192 m); the meteor is streaking by 70 mi (112 km) or so above the Earth's surface; the brightest star in the frame, Menkar (at upper right center in the constellation of Cetus), lies approximately 250 light years from our solar system.
Photo Details: Camera Model: NIKON D5100; Focal Length: 14.0mm (35mm equivalent: 21mm); Aperture: ƒ/5.0; Exposure Time: 30.000 s; ISO equiv: 800; Software: GIMP 2.8.14.