Tonight the Draconid meteor shower peaked, the meteors radiating from a point just next to the star Beta Draconis in the constellation Draco. It was stronger than normal, so I decided to defy the nearly full Moon and try to catch my first meteor.
My initial plan was to use my new motorized equatorial mount, but that was perhaps a bit too ambitious. I had not yet practiced aligning it, and standing outside in the dark fumbling with the numerous controls was very frustrating. When the first meteors started to draw trails across the sky I gave up and went inside to get my faithful tripod.
After a bit of fumbling with the focus, I set the camera to take a series of 10 second exposures and stepped back to watch the show. Imagine my joy when a clear meteor shot across the sky right in my field of view! :) I caught a total of three meteors before clouds started drifting in. The first – my first ever! – was also the most luminous. The three most luminous stars in the image are part of the Draco constellation.