Fascinating Photos by Ćatović: Perseids, Stećci, Milky Way, Pleiades...

Alan Ćatović, founder of the Facebook group "Astronomy Group" Sarajevo, has taken fascinating night photos, writes Patria.

- Perseids, stećci, Milky Way, Pleiades, Andromeda and more – Ćatović titled the photo.

The photo was taken in the sky above Dejčići, one of the Bjelašnica villages. The frame includes stećci on the Prečansko field near Dejčići, the Perseid meteor shower with its radiant in Perseus (center of the frame), the Milky Way in the central part of the image, the open star cluster Pleiades – M45 (above the right stećak), the Andromeda galaxy – M31 (right part of the image, above the brightest meteor), and of course, a multitude of stars (the brightest star in the image is Capella). Sarajevo lights are visible in the left corner of the image.

From about 200 successful shots, I selected about ten with brighter Perseids. To cancel out the Earth's rotation and place the meteors in the correct perspective (as if they were coming towards us), I used the "layer compositing" technique – I selected the main image, determined the center of rotation in the shot (Polaris), and rotated each subsequent image by a certain angle. After that, using the "blending" technique (option "lighten") from all layers, I selected only the meteors from the given images and combined all the shots into the final image. Final processing in Adobe Lightroom – Ćatović stated.

The Perseids are a meteor shower with its radiant in the constellation Perseus, visible from July 25 to August 20, with the highest frequency around August 12, when up to 100 meteors per hour can appear. They travel at speeds of up to 70 km/s. They originate from the orbit of comet Swift-Tuttle. They can be seen from Earth, especially from darker locations. The oldest records of the Perseids date back to ancient China. They are best visible before dawn.