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Due to similar motion of the meteoroids in the solar system and earths
flight through this dusty cloud, meteors of one stream move on parallel
tracks in our atmosphere. In our perspective view however, the parallel tracks
in space seem to come from one direction, the
radiant of the meteors. The typical
meteors of August emanate from the constellation of
Perseus,
and thus are called Perseids.
The photo above was taken with Perseus in the back and the radiant about 30 degrees high in the sky. The meteors now seem to converge in a point 30 degrees below the horizon, the "antiradiant". But they never reach this point: the pea-sized particles are pulverized to dust that slowly rains down to earth. Only the rare and more massive earthgrazers can escape from the atmosphere if the meteors path only touches the outer atmosphere tangentially. This can happen when the radiant is just rising or setting at the horizon. The above composite of nine 6s-exposures was constructed in a way that the meteors are on their right position with respect to the stars.
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