Double Surprise

I had planned to photograph the Eta Aquariids during the peak night from May 5 to May 6. My hometown Westcliffe is a Dark Sky Community, and you basically can't find a better or more ideal location for night photography. Except, of course, when the weather doesn't cooperate...as it happened on the evening of May 5th, when suddenly a thick layer of clouds settled over the vast Wet Mountain Valley and Westcliffe. So much for photographing a meteor shower - I said disappointed to myself and packed my gear up again, since such a wall of clouds usually stays for quite a while. But when I happened to wake up at around 3:30 am and looked out of a window, I was totally surprised to see a clear night sky sparkling! I rushed and feverishly got my equipment together, because I knew I would only get a short period of dark skies before dawn would creep in. I shot without interruption for about 45 minutes, but without seeing or capturing a single meteor. I knew that this meteor shower can be sparse, but nevertheless this harvest was actually quite frustrating! But I kept my camera pointed towards the Milky Way, glowing beautifully and big towards the Southwest, hoping for a meteor streaking by. And finally, it was showtime: I saw a greenish flash to the left of the Milky Way and knew instantly I had a winner! Sure enough, when I checked my last 15 seconds exposure on the screen of the camera, I could clearly identify a good size meteor in the image. But to my big surprise, I saw that there was actually a SECOND, smaller meteor below the one I had noticed! Now, THAT was a truly good "harvest" and totally unexpected when I went to bed last night, staring disappointed at the cloud cover overhead...

Nikon D850, Manfrotto Tripod, Sigma Art 24-70/2.8

Minor Adjustments in LIGHTROOM