This celestial firework is part of the solar system's brightest annual light show, the Perseid meteor shower. On Sunday night amateur astrophotographer Darryl Van Gaal captured the shooting stars in action over Smiths Mill Pond in Oakland, Ontario, Canada, taking hundreds of pictures over the course of 4 hours.
The image above is a composite of 15 pictures, showing how the meteors all appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus – hence the shower's name. In fact, the space rocks originate in a cloud of debris spat out by the comet Swift-Tuttle. Earth crosses the comet's orbit around this time each year, causing some of the rocks to burn up in the planet's atmosphere. Up to 100 meteors an hour are visible in the sky at the shower's peak.
Van Gaal used an ordinary camera and tripod to take the pictures, so he says anyone should be able to have a go – he has written a guide to help. Though the shower has passed its peak, Perseid meteors can be glimpsed until 25 August. But if you don't manage to spot them this year, there's always another chance. "This is my second year – last year was a miserable failure because of the weather," he says.
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