Red sprite jellyfish at the Perseid Meteor shower peak

  Red Sprites are huge breakdowns in the atmosphere above strong lightning strikes. They form as gases are torn apart and release photons in a transient electric field high in the atmosphere. The form of their breakdown- the intricate shapes and branching- remains a mystery to this day. This particular type of sprite is referred to as a jellyfish sprite. Beautiful, large, and mysteriously intricate, they are the night sky's kings.

  Here, during the Perseid meteor shower peak, I scrambled for an interesting foreground as distant storms ramped up and sprites began to fire fiercely. Looking down this Oklahoma dirt road was perfect for the moment, leading the foreground into this amazing scene in the sky over a distant wind farm.

  This image is a stack of one sprite shot looking down the road with twelve images of the brightest meteors during 45 minutes of shooting this composition. It depicts the awesomeness of my favorite meteor shower of the year, as meteors rained down from the radiant like falling fiery jewels.

  About my photography: All my images are real and are usually single shots. I don't swap skies or move objects around. This is a real scene. I use post-processing products to develop the shots afterward and various denoise software. Real nature, rare nature.

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