While shooting a timelapse of the Milky Way, one incredibly lucky photographer captured rare footage of a meteor explosion against the atmosphere. Wes Eisenhauer was definitely in the right place at the right time, with the right camera settings, when a meteor slammed into the atmosphere and burned up in a fiery ring:
Eisenhauer was filming in the Black Hills outside of Custer, South Dakota on a clear night in October when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he checked out his timelapse footage, he saw something unbelievable and stunning—an explosion that actually looked like a fireball. He couldn’t explain it so he shared his video looking for answers.
Both National Geographic and Discovery Channel have approached Eisenhauer about licensing the clip for commercial use. Apparently, it’s pretty difficult to capture a moment like this; after all, a meteor does have the power to travel up to 50 miles per second!
Eisenhauer captured the moment of impact and burning out with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 16-35mm lens. The settings were 30 second exposure, f/2.8, and ISO 5000.
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I’ve caught something similar. I didn’t get the cool looking smoke ring, but I caught some smoke coming from a meteor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAF4MNSgmiw