Perseid Meteor Shower Washout

The moon is the brightest thing in the sky at night. It can light up a person on Earth. So what does it do to the surrounding sky? Brightens it. The sky goes from thousands of stars the maybe one hundred, even elevated and away from city lights. With the aid of photography, the camera will catch perhaps 20 times more than your eye can see. The are plenty of sites telling people to get out and check out the Perseids, but only do it if you can stay up until dawn where you get just a bit of time of darkness. The moon must go down and then you’ll get darkness, but the sun comes up really quick. That said, I did get a few good photos while the moon was up. I didn’t make it to the 4 or 5AM mark when the moon was to set. I’d say, only do this if you’re going to be up till dawn. Otherwise, even at a higher elevation, you won’t see much.

This one of my best shots. Yes, the meteor could be larger, but look at the colors. Here’s a zoom in:

To the naked eye, it sort of looks like this. You see the moon, there are some stars, but not a ton.