巨石阵上空的英仙座流星

Perseid Meteors over Stonehenge
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: What’s happening in the sky above Stonehenge? A meteor shower: specifically, the Perseid meteor shower. A few nights ago, after the sky darkened, many images of meteors from this year’s Perseids were captured separately and merged into a single frame. Although the meteors all traveled on straight paths, these paths appear slightly curved by the wide-angle lens of the capturing camera. The meteor streaks can all be traced back to a single point on the sky called the radiant, here just off the top of the frame in the constellation of Perseus. The same camera took a deep image of the background sky that brought up the central band of our Milky Way galaxy running nearly vertical through the image center. The featured image was taken from Wiltshire, England, being careful to include, at the bottom, the famous astronomical monument of Stonehenge. Although the Perseids peaked last night, some Perseid meteors should still be visible for a few more nights.

Tomorrow’s picture: big sky jet

巨石阵上空的英仙座流星
影像提供与版权: Josh Dury

说明: 巨石阵上空发生什么事？有流星洒落；更具体的来说，下了一场英仙座流星雨。数晚之前，在黑夜降临后的夜空中，拍下了今年英仙座流星雨的多张流星照片，然后再合并成上面这幅单张影像。尽管流星皆是沿直线前进，但是因为拍照的相机是透过广角镜头成像，所以流星迹看起来略微弯曲。不过这些流星迹，皆可回溯到天空的单一辐射点，而在此例中，这个辐射点位于英仙座内、紧贴在视野顶缘外头。当时，同一部相机也拍摄了一张深空的背景影像，以记录几乎垂直贯过影像中心的银河系中央盘面。这幅精彩的主题影像摄于英格兰的威尔特郡，取景时更特意涵盖了位于底部的著名天文遗址巨石阵。虽然英仙座流星雨的极大期是在昨晚，但在未来的几个晚上，仍然可以看到英仙座流星。

明日的图片: big sky jet

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