04/09/2023
“Wishes for the World”
Gallatin County, Montana, USA
10 August 2023
I captured this image of the Perseid meteor shower two nights ago. The meteors in it are composited from all of the frames from a 6.5 hour timelapse I captured (9:30PM to 4:00AM). The bright star looking object higher in the sky on the right side of the image is Jupiter. The bright light just above the lower roof, also on the right side of the image, is the rising moon. It was a small crescent moon, which allowed me to capture the stars simultaneously. The base layer sky used for this image is a single frame with both the moon and stars visible.
The building in this shot is perhaps my favorite old building to shoot. I call her Big Red. She resides along a Montana country road in the Gallatin Valley, and I try to visit her a couple times a year. We have spent many long nights drifting through the cosmos together, which is always a magical experience.
I have captured the Perseid meteor shower each august for the last couple years, but have always done so facing south, so that I could simultaneously capture the Milky Way. This year I wanted to spend one night shooting directly towards the constellation Perseus instead, which is on the opposite side of the sky (northeast). The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, creating a kind of star effect coming from its center.
I spent a surprising amount of time trying to think of good places that faced to the northeast before finally remembering Big Red. Once she was in my mind, there really wasn’t another option.
The way the meteors appear to originate from Big Red, before traveling in all directions inspired the name of this image. Making a wish when you see a shooting star is a well-known tradition that is common to many cultures. To me, it almost feels like Big Red is sending wishes for the world.
