I got out to Sunset Crater National Monument northeast of Flagstaff, AZ to photograph and just bask in what turned out to be an awesome display. Running a couple cameras, I was not counting meteors every minute of every hour, but kind of collected numbers in batches:
0930-1030Z = 63 Perseids / 7 sporadics [rate of 63/hr]
1050-1105Z = 37 Perseids / 1 sporadic [rate of 148/hr]
1105-1120Z = 21 Perseids / 3 sporadics [rate of 84/hr]
1130-1200Z = 55 Perseids / 4 sporadics [rate of 110/hr]
No single hour added up close to 100/hr, but shorter 15-30 minute spans were pretty good in between lulls.
Composite shot covering multiple exposures between 2:36-4:29AM (0936-1129 UT).
There are 48 Perseids—including two spectacular fireballs—and 5 sporadics included in the shot. Each shot has been de-rotated/repositioned to account for Earth's rotation and to align the meteor to the star field that it crossed at the time of the exposure. All but four of the exposures were shot with a Canon T3i/600D and Rokinon 16 mm f/2 at 10 seconds, f/2, ISO 3200. The remaining four were captured by a Canon T3i/600D and Canon EF-S 10-22 mm at 10 seconds, 10 mm, f/3.5, ISO 6400.
After years of trying, I finally had a lens capable of f/2 and a fireball that wound up centered in the frame. It left a bright train that visually lasted over 30 seconds, followed by an orange train that was picked up by the time lapse camera from 0940 to at least 1025Z ...so 45 minutes for sure.
Persistent Train Sequence shot from 2:40-2:43 / 0940-0943Z — 12 August 2016
2016 Perseid Fireball from Jeremy Perez on Vimeo.
