'Once-in-a-lifetime' photo: Perseid meteors, northern lights and rare glowing arc shine over 11th-century castle

By Daisy Dobrijevic
published 3 days ago

An astonishing scene featuring Perseid meteors and colorful auroras played out overnight on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 above the U.K.'s 11th Century Corfe Castle.



a view of the night sky with an old castle ruin in the foreground. There is a pink hue on the left which is the northern lights and lots of streaks of light which are the perseid meteor and toward the center right of the image is a long red glow which is known as a SAR arc.
Perseid meteor shower, northern lights and rare SAR arc glow during the night of Aug.12/13. (Image credit: Josh Dury)


When photographer Josh Dury set out to photograph the peak of the Perseid meteor shower overnight on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, little did he know he'd be treated to a truly special cosmic display.

The breathtaking image Dury captured shows not only Perseid meteors raining down through the sky but also northern lights and a rare atmospheric glow known as an SAR arc alongside the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies.

"To think that so much is going on in the astronomical scene that evening with the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies also visible, makes this definitely a once-in-a-lifetime photograph," Dury told Space.com in an email.

Dury chose 11th Century Corfe Castle as the setting for his image as he'd photographed from the location on May 10 during the epic G5 geomagnetic storm and captured some incredible scenes.

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More:
https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/once-in-a-lifetime-photo-perseid-meteors-northern-lights-and-rare-glowing-arc-shine-over-11th-century-castle