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Great picture! Seen many of these but never one that is so clear! Excellent!

Wow! Incredible photo! Congratulations on the VIP!

Utterly magnificent, Patty! If any photograph has ever deserved an Approver's Choice,this is THE one. Congratulations to you for being there with your camera and to us for seeing this unique event. Thank you.

Robert

This is amazing, AND beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing! God sure put you at the right place, at the right time, with quick reflexes and a steady hand! Julie in Ohio

Incredible capture! Congrats on the VIP!

Oh my gosh, this is a wonderful shot!

What a phenomenal shot, Patty! I never, ever thought that meteors would be so clear. This is the first time that I would give a photo an 11! WOW!

wow!!! amazing that you were able to capture this and it is so obviously a meteor!! Congrats on the VIP!

Wow! Wonderful shot. You got lucky!

Update: Congratulations on the VIP!

Pretty picture. However, are you sure it was a meteor? Typically a meteor lasts less than a second - it's a bright streak that flashes and is immediately gone, so you have no time to take a snapshot. How long was this one visible?

Here is a video of some meteors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PurS9drcCrk

Great capture!! - I have seen a few meteors and one fairly large one that looked pretty much like this one. avtanski is right - they last only a very short time, so if it was a meteor you were very lucky to have your camera positioned and ready to capture the great shot.

Good shot!! By the way, my maiden name was Gross. Thanks for posting.

And speaking of meteors - if you want to see some, almost every clear night is fine; just sit on a lawn chair and keep looking up. Typical rate is about 10 per hour.

However, if you try this on the nights around December 13 you are in for a treat. This is when the Geminids meteor shower peaks. The typical rate at the peak is around 50-80 meteors per hour (this is on top of the 10 per hour background rate), so if you spent even 5 minutes looking up at that night you are practically guaranteed to catch a few.

Quoting avtanski:
However, are you sure it was a meteor? Typically a meteor lasts less than a second - it's a bright streak that flashes and is immediately gone, so you have no time to take a snapshot.

Not entirely true. While the VAST majority ARE very momentary, there are a couple or three every night which may last upwards of 10 seconds or so, especially if it's large, breaks into several pieces, & is from one of the typically "low streams".

Every single meteor shower has a very distinct personality ... bright & fast, slow with long trails, many pinpoint flashes with no trail, lots of bolides (painfully bright ones), even large percentages of specific colors. And then there are always orphan meteors, from no known stream, which can be almost any type.

And then too, if either you are making long-exposure photos, or if a bright flash didn't ruin your night vision, the tails of a few per night may last for a minute or more ... a ghostly white serpent being slowly warped by upper air currents.

I've been an astronomer for well over 2 decades, have probably averaged 200+ nights each year doing at least an hour or so of observing, and Have seen at least 1 decent meteor every single time. Even if the observing/photo session is over, if I've yet to meet thatreal good one, then I'll ALWAYS stay out until I finally see that one good one, then I call it a night. It rarely takes longer than 30 minutes before that happens.

Two automatically come to mind as belonging to that really good group. One was at a Drive-In Theater (anyone remember those?) and was behind & above the screen. The other was brilliant green & HUGE in size, seen with a friend while floating a river. The first was much longer in both size & time, the latter was much more brighter & colorful. Both lasted about the same amount of time, around 5-7 seconds. That green one could have also been an omen, since we were illegally spotlight raccoons & had already knocked a little hole in the boat on a rough shoal. :( :(

But yeah, there's AT LEAST 2 or 3 SupeEteors every single night if you happen to be looking up at the right time ... or down too, since many of these can make shadows. And these are the type which very often last ridicously long.

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Deepwoods, this one most likely never made it to the ground. Atmosphere entry is a VERY brutal affair & believe-it-or-not, most of the ones around this same brightness & size are only about the size of a marble or quarter. There's just not enough mass there to keep it from totally vaporizing.

In order to make ground contact, it'll need to start out about the size of a softball or so, and have a very favorable entry angle. In that case, you MIGHT get a dime-size one on the ground or in the water.

The ones which survive entry as a good size chunk, say a couple/three inches or so, were probably the size of watermelons & would have most likely left a very prominent trail across half of the sky. For a second or so, they would have been the brightest thing in the night sky, maybe competing even with Luna, & could have very easily have been visible in daytime.

What a fantabulous photo!! Awesome capture and congrats on VIP!

I've been blessed to have actually HEARD and seen a meteor hissing through the sky just before it burned up or landed. It's unforgettable! Thank you so much for sharing these amazing photos! Julie in Ohio

Wow! Wonderful shot!

Congrats on the great photo deepwoods.
I do believe you are the first to capture and post a photo of a large meteor. Lucky shot!

IM Tired Of Wishin' On A Falling Star

interesting color !

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful pic. When I was 15 (1967), my friend Mark and I were walking in pitch dark from east to west in Apalachin, NY. All of a sudden, a huge ball of fire travelling from east to west flew over our heads. I immediately knew what it was because I was fascinated by anything space-related. I didn't believe in UFOs yet. It trailed three fire tails and we could even hear it. It didn't sound like a freight train, but a medium-pitched whistling sound. It was the best thing I've ever seen. It landed in Nichols, NY, about 20 miles to the west. Wow.

Oh, my gosh, Patty, how on earth could you have photographed that? (pun intended) Wow, how exciting for you! Double congratulations on your AC and VIP!

Stupendous shot! ongrats on the AC and VIP..

How did you catch that photo of the comet through the air!!?? Now that is what i call wonderful photography!!

WOW!!!!!

Could it be orbital space debris rather than a meteor?

I though I WAS lucky... INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you hear it?

...forgot to pay SiriusXM bill this month so they probably scuttled my satellite.

Double congratulations on your AC and VIP!

merc... facinating comments! to see one of a few moments, is rare indeed. keep looking up !

avtanski. good observation. keep looking up!

Great shot, Patty. Moving experience is, possible, to be closer to the creation of universe suddenly.