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| Cropped view showing a faint meteor crossing the Milky Way during a 308.6-second exposure near Swain, New York on August 15, 2026. |
On the night of August 15, 2026, near Swain, New York, I was photographing the Milky Way with my Canon EOS Ra. During one long exposure, my wife and I saw a meteor cross the sky. It was not especially bright, but later I found what appears to be the same meteor recorded in the photograph.
I have watched Perseid meteors before, and even visually this one did not particularly look like a bright, typical Perseid to me. My first impression was that it could be a sporadic meteor. However, August 15 is still within the active period of the Perseid meteor shower, so I wanted to investigate whether it could have been a Perseid — and, perhaps even more importantly today, whether the streak could instead have been a satellite.
Meteor, Perseid or Satellite?
The meteor moved approximately from the upper-left toward the lower-right in the photograph. This is generally the correct direction for an object moving away from the Perseid radiant, which was located toward Perseus on the northeastern side of the sky.
The full photograph contains enough recognizable stars to check the orientation of the camera. The Milky Way crosses the frame, the Summer Triangle is prominent, and Beta Cassiopeiae (Caph) can also be identified toward the left side of the Milky Way.
When the meteor trail is extended backward across the sky, however, it does not line up perfectly with the expected Perseid radiant for August 15. Because this is a wide-angle photograph and the radiant is well outside the frame, simply extending a straight line on the image is only an approximation. Nevertheless, the difference is large enough that I would not confidently identify this meteor as a Perseid.
For now, my preferred interpretation is therefore simple: it is most likely a meteor, and probably a sporadic meteor rather than a Perseid.
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| Full-frame 16 mm view showing the Milky Way, Summer Triangle and a faint meteor near Swain, New York on August 15, 2026. Canon EOS Ra, 308.6 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 1600. |
Could It Be a Satellite?
With a five-minute exposure, a satellite has to be considered. A satellite normally produces a long straight trail, and a satellite that slowly flares and fades can sometimes look surprisingly similar to a meteor in a single photograph.
I checked available catalogued satellite trajectories for the location and corrected exposure time. There were satellites in this general region of the sky, but I did not find a convincing illuminated satellite that followed the photographed trail at the correct time and in the correct direction. One geometrically interesting satellite candidate was already inside Earth's shadow and therefore should not have been visible by reflected sunlight.
This does not provide absolute proof — very faint satellites and some orbital debris can always make identification difficult — but together with the fact that two of us actually watched the meteor at the time of the exposure, a meteor is by far the more natural explanation.
Photography Settings
Camera: Canon EOS Ra
Lens: Canon EF 16–35mm f/2.8L II USM
Focal length: 16 mm
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 1600
Exposure: 308.6 seconds
Date: August 15, 2026
Location: Near Swain, New York
Finding the Exact Time
For checking satellites, the exact exposure time is important. I had photographed my computer clock during the same session and later discovered that the camera clock was approximately 8 minutes 1 second fast.
The meteor image has a camera timestamp of 11:39:19 PM. I also tested my Canon EOS Ra afterward and confirmed that the time stored with a photograph corresponds to the beginning of the exposure, not the end.
After correcting the camera clock, this exposure therefore began at approximately 11:31:18 PM EDT and continued for about 5 minutes 9 seconds, ending near 11:36:27 PM.
I later synchronized the Canon EOS Ra clock with my computer using Canon EOS Utility. This is a very useful setting for astrophotography, especially for meteors, eclipses, satellite identification, or any observation where the exact time matters. It is also important to check the camera's Daylight Saving Time setting; for New York in summer the DST setting should be enabled.
Meteor Photography in the Age of Satellites
There is also something a little frustrating about photographing meteors today. Twenty years ago, when a short unexpected streak appeared in an astrophotograph, a meteor was often the obvious first possibility. Satellites existed, of course, but there were far fewer of them crossing every part of the night sky.
Today the situation is very different. A long exposure can contain one or several satellite trails, and even a short fading streak has to be investigated before calling it a meteor. Sometimes it feels as if photographing a meteor is no longer only about being lucky enough to catch one — afterward you also have to prove that it was not a satellite.
In this case, fortunately, there was something the camera metadata and satellite catalog could not provide: my wife and I were standing under the sky and actually saw the meteor ourselves.
Dark Sky, Airglow and Dew
The area near Swain, in western New York near the Finger Lakes region, has a very good dark sky for New York State. According to the Light Pollution Map, this location is approximately between Bortle Classes 3 and 4. One of my own simple indicators of a genuinely dark sky is visible airglow. Under a dark enough sky, especially in long-exposure photographs, the background is often not black at all but can show green or sometimes reddish emission from Earth's upper atmosphere. The noticeable green airglow close to the zenith in this photograph was another indication of how dark and transparent the sky was that night.
There is also one practical challenge when photographing at night in this area: dew can become very strong. During a long astrophotography session the front lens element can gradually fog, even when the sky looks perfectly clear. An anti-dew heater around the lens is highly recommended for long exposures and overnight photography here.
