Perseid Meteors, Milky Way, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Venus Time-Lapse

A couple of late Perseid Meteors: 00:33UTC at the 4 o'clock position; 01:16UTC just right of centre.

As the Sun sets, you can see Earth's shadow rising in the East (left in the image).

Shortly after dusk, you can see Saturn, Mars and the bright star Spica in a line as they set. You can even pick out that Mars is the central object due to its pinkish hue. Earlier in the week, the trio formed an almost perfect equilateral triangle.

The Milky Way stretches across the entire sky, with Scorpius and Sagittarius at its lower end (actually the centre of our galaxy).

Then, shortly before dawn, another trio greets the morning sky: Jupiter, Venus and the Moon rising in the East. And you can tell we're nearing the end of Summer, as the constellation of Orion is starting to rise just before dawn.

The light on the left of the time-lapse throughout the night is my head-torch as I move around inside the dome.

The yellow hue to the entire sky is caused by smoke from the forest fires that are currently besetting the Canary Islands. It's been the hottest driest period for over 70 years.

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