August 24, 2023
The story of your birthday began billions of years before calendars existed, in furnaces of light and clouds of dust.
Meteors along the Milky Way
Birthday · August 24, 2023
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
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APOD published August 24, 2023. Credit: Under dark. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Under dark and mostly moonless night skies, many denizens of planet Earth were able to watch this year's Perseid meteor shower. Seen from a grassy hillside from Shiraz, Iran these Perseid meteors streak along the northern summer Milky Way before dawn on Sunday, August 13. Frames used to construct the composited image were captured near the active annual meteor shower's peak between 02:00 AM and 04:30 AM local time. Not in this night skyscape, the shower's radiant in the heroic constellation Perseus is far above the camera's field of view. But fans of northern summer nights can still spot a familiar asterism. Formed by bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair, the Summer Triangle spans the luminous band of the Milky Way.
Image credit: Under dark