Trailing Above North Cascades National Park in a Meteor Shower

This image was created with 65 consecutive 30 second exposures stacked for the trails and 2 dark frames for noise reduction and 2 frames for the foreground detail. If you look carefully you can see Perseid meteors zooming through the frame as this was taken at the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower pointing towards the radiant. One my favorite yearly astronomical events!

Images were stacked with Max Lyon's stacker program ( http://www.tawbaware.com/imgstack.htm ) and then merged in PS. If I had my superwide Tokina 11-16 for this I could have included the N. Star, that would have rocked. For free stacking options (Lyon's program is very affordable at $17) there is this free Photoshop action ( http://www.schursastrophotography.com/software/photoshop/startrails.html ) . Other freebies you might want to try, especially if you need a stand alone if you don't have PS are here ( http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html ) and here ( http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html ) .

TrailsStarsAstronomyMeteorMeteorsShooting StarStarPerseidPerseidsScienceWashingtonStateCascadesNPSNPNorthNorth Cascades National ParkNightSkyStreaksLong ExposureStackingStackedWANikonD300LandscapeNightscapeShower2009