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Todd Bush Captures Perseid Meteor Shower: A Bit Elusive for Viewing With Rain, Clouds

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By Jesse Wood

Banner Elk-based photographer Todd Bush is back at it again with more amazing, celestial shots. Bush captured the Perseid, a prolific meteor shower that peaked over the weekend. Bush said he’s seen some “really nice shows” of the meteor showers the past few days and captured some shots from his home in Banner Elk.

“The Perseids Meteors were a bit elusive for viewing with our rain and clouds but fun to see. In one of the shots in the montage, the brightest meteor was a stray going its own way,” Bush said.

Here’s how NASA describes Perseid:

Every Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 133 years. Each swing through the inner solar system can leave trillions of small particles in its wake. When Earth crosses paths with Swift-Tuttle’s debris, specks of comet-stuff hit Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate in flashes of light. These meteors are called Perseids because they seem to fly out of the constellation Perseus.

Most years, Earth might graze the edge of Swift-Tuttle’s debris stream, where there’s less activity. Occasionally, though, Jupiter’s gravity tugs the huge network of dust trails closer, and Earth plows through closer to the middle, where there’s more material.

This may be one of those years. Experts at NASA and elsewhere agree that three or more streams are on a collision course with Earth.

“Here’s something to think about. The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago,” said Cooke. “And they’ve traveled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere.”

To see more of Bush’s work, click to www.bushphoto.com.