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Alaa El Bedewi
White Desert, Egypt
12/14/2023
11:59 pm

Equipment Details:

Canon EOS R
Askar FRA600
ZWO AM5 Mount
ASIAIR Plus
ZWO 30mm Mini Guide Scope
ZWO ASI120MM

Post-processing Details:

The edit is as simple as adding the extracted Ha to the main broadband color image, and after star alignment added the meteors of from the 3 sub frames.

Image Details:

When the stars (or nebulas and meteors) align :)

I was originally working on a 4-panel mosaic of the Orion Region, for which I travelled to the White Desert of Egypt seeking a bortle 1 sky. Coinciding with that trip was the peak of the Geminids Meteor Shower, so I thought I'll pack a deep space setup for the mosaic and a wide field setup to capture the shower with the spectacular rock formations of the White Desert.

On the evening of the 12th & 13th of December, I captured a few 600s with the dual narrowband filter with the intension of extracting the Ha and adding it to the broadband subs later for a bit of pop.
Then on the night of the 14th, I moved deeper into the desert with our camping gear. I setup my telescope and started capturing broadband images of the Orion nebula, left that setup running and explored with my wide field lens the landscape capturing some stunning foregrounds and then placed the camera on the tracker and started capturing exposures of the sky hoping to get a few exposures with my 15mm lens that had meteors. Never giving my deep space setup a second look... near the end of the night I snuck a peak at my tablet and to my amazement a meteor was right dead in frame with the Horsehead and Flame. I couldn’t believe my eyes or luck!

After a sleepless night and a few hours of racing back to Cairo to find my PC and Edit this image, I blinked through the subs and wow... 2 more subs each with its own glorious meteor.

I am thankful for my lucky stars that even though I was capturing 3 other panels, none of them had any meteors (expected), but instead only the Horsehead panel had 3!

Clear Skies and Luck Stars!