Meteor and Milky Way

[Michael Frye]

Meteor and Milky Way, Yosemite NP, California




Each August the Perseids meteor shower puts on a show, but some years it’s better than others. This year the Perseids peak occurred during a new moon, with dark skies – perfect timing.

That peak also coincided with some interesting weather in the Yosemite high country, so Claudia and I spent a couple of nights in the Tuolumne Meadows campground photographing weather and night skies.

For the meteor shower we hung out along a lakeshore, looking toward the Milky Way, hoping a bright meteor might appear in the right spot. We weren’t looking toward the radiant for the meteor shower – the place where the meteors seem to emanate from, in this case the Perseus constellation. While you’re likely to see more meteors looking toward the radiant, the streaks will be shorter, since the meteors fall straight down toward you, rather than going across the sky. So we opted to look toward the Milky Way, almost directly opposite the radiant. We knew we’d see fewer meteors, but the ones we would see would have longer streaks. I just needed one in the right spot.

It was a pleasant evening – not too cold, even though we were sitting at over 8,000 feet. We saw lots of meteors, but none in exactly the right place for my composition. Finally, however, just after 11:00 p.m., a bright meteor sliced down right through the heart of the Milky Way – as you can see in the photograph above. I couldn’t have placed it better.

So I got lucky, but even if I hadn’t, I enjoyed just hanging out, looking at the stars and meteors. I’ll take that any time.

— Michael Frye

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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.

Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including
Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.

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