Lyrid ionization trail animation

[melsky]

Had a great evening at the Rollright Stones Saturday evening trying to image the Lyrid meteor shower (it was more of a drip actually).

We only saw a few bright meteors in over four hours and this one was by far the best, it left a visible trail for about 20 second after it briefly flashed past Polaris.

I was shooting 60 second exposures with a Canon 600D mounted on the Astrotrac and below is an animated gif starting two minutes before and ending eight minutes after the meteor passed.

If you look above the meteor you can see the ionization trail drifting up and dissipating, very fortunate to get this as well

Mel

Close up

[Steve 1962]

That is just brilliant Mel - extraordinary!

The shape of the ionisation trail is interesting - two pronged - I wonder why? Also - do you think it went up or sideways towards you?

Thanks for sharing

Steve

[laser_jock99]

Wow- very interesting, I have visually seen one of these persistant trails after a bright meteor (maybe lasted 40 seconds or so) but you have managed to capture one on camera. Well done.

[melsky]

Thanks Steve

I guess it was drifting towards us as it's spreading out and I reckon the two or three prongs indicate different concentrations of material as it breaks up?

[SkyJamie]

Well caught Mel and awesome animations

Jamie

[iwatkins]

That is some excellent work Mel, nice one

Very special indeed.

Cheers

Ian

[melsky]

Thanks Ian

You may be interested to know that I've checked the exif data and this is the exact same meteor you caught over in Gloucestershire on your all-sky camera at 0006UTC

Link http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-widefield-special-events-comets/186366-lyrids-maybe.html

might be worth checking to see if this trail appears on your camera as well.

I know it's the same meteor Sandra caught because she was set up next to me at the Rollrights

Link http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-widefield-special-events-comets/186309-lyrid-meteor.html

Mel

[kharga]

Excellent!!!

[Takahashi]

These are fantastic, and the added "catch" of the trail is a great bonus.

[theritz]

Great material! Never seen this before. Or heard or read about it either. Something I am going to do now that I've come to hear of it. Thanks.

[Viv]

Great captures Mel.

Do you know what the other 2 trails were ??

[Spr]

Great stuff, not seen anything like that before

Darren

[melsky]

Great captures Mel.

Do you know what the other 2 trails were ??

I think they are just passing satellites Scarlet, we must have seen x5 more satellites than meteors that night.

Here is an image showing a close-up with a few constellations to give an idea of the field of view.

[Viv]

Thanks Mel.

That was some distance !!

Can't stop watching your image amination. Love the trees moving as well !

[sanmatt]

Mesmorising stuff, I cant take my eyes off it!

Well done Mel, brilliant!

I'm still laughing at us all screaming 'wt fffffffffffffff who saw thaaaaaaaaaatttttt!'

[sanmatt]

Thing is, the image just doesnt do it justice. By naked eye it was outrageously big and so very bright, and seemingly closer. Far brighter and bigger than the images will let us beleive.

[Pete Presland]

very impressive animation,with out doubt the most interesting i have seen.

the meteor and the ionization trail is simply a great capture. watched over and over again