" Leonids Streaking Through Andromeda"

South Park, Colorado November 18, 2001
Fujicolor Professional Press P- 800
ISO 800 color negative film -- pushed 1 stop
Pentax Spotmatic camera with 28 mm lens at f/3.5 / 2 minute exposure

 

These impressive Leonid shower meteors "rained down" through the Milky Way and one on the bottom left even seems to "hit" M-31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy. These meteors were photographed during the most intense part of the meteor storm when the Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR) reached a maximum of almost 3000, and lasted from 03:10 A.M. MST to 03:30 A.M. MST on November 18, 2001. The round object in the direct foreground is the telescope tube (the camera was riding piggyback and being driven by the telescope's clock drive to compensate for the Earth's rotation) and the light area in the background is snow on the peaks above Hoosier Pass and Breckenridge, CO.

The Leonid meteor shower astrophotography is available via telephone ordering as noted below.