Georgia Photographer Captures Halley Debris Meteors

Astrophotographer Tim McCollum recorded three bright meteors over Toccoa, Georgia, on Oct. 21. The image captures debris from Comet 1P/Halley, which is currently more than 3 billion miles from Earth.

McCollum took the photograph between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. as the annual Orionid shower built toward its peak. The three meteors appear to race away from the shower's radiant, a point near the red giant star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion.

The comet sheds particles that remain in the solar system long after the parent body has moved on. These particles create the glowing trails visible in the autumn sky. The event demonstrates how distant celestial bodies continue to affect Earth's atmosphere.

Capturing such events requires specific equipment and technique. McCollum used a Canon EOS Ra camera paired with an RF 28-70 f2.0 lens. A star tracker kept the camera locked on the radiant during multiple 30-second exposures. He later merged the individual frames into a single composite image using PixInsight software.

The final frame includes other deep sky objects. The stars of Orion's Belt sit on the right side, near the Orion Nebula, one of the nearest major star-forming regions to Earth. The Rosette Nebula, catalogued as Caldwell 49, is also visible within the dense starfield and dust lanes of the Milky Way's galactic plane.

The Orionid shower remains active until Nov. 7. Earth is also passing through debris streams from Comet 2P/Encke, which produce the Taurid meteor shower. This overlap can occasionally bring Halloween Fireballs to observers in the Northern Hemisphere.