Winter sky, comet Halley’s dust and meteor smoke above Roque Cinchado
As I moved to the Canary Islands, my goal was to spend some time in the amazing Teide national park in Tenerife during the peak of annual meteor shower Orionids. The particles causing “shooting stars” are originally from Halley’s comet, which was closest to the Sun in same year as I was born. So a bit symbolic view. Well, unfortunately, just when I arrived, thick layer of Sahara sand (so-called Calima) covered the island and I couldn’t enjoy the famous dark sky as I expected. But on 25th October 2014 the Calima started to fade and even if it was after the maximum of the meteor shower, I still could easily enjoy lot of meteors. And that morning I spent just in the middle of the famous park, only a few meters away from the majestic Roque Cinchado, above which I observed the event. And there was even more – zodiacal Gegenschein right from the Bull constellation, lot of bright stars of the winter sky around Orion the hunter and… and exactly at 5:46:37 UT there flew so bright fireball, that it left colorful meteor smoke, visible more than 3 minutes after the fireball faded out. What exactly you can see on this image, feel free to find out here. Used Canon 6D modified, Sigma 15 mm, f4.5, ISO 10000, 28×20 s (sky and the landscape) + 3×20 s, f2.8 (meteor smoke), tripod; darkframes applied.
