Perseid meteors meet mesmerizing star trails over Egypt’s Western Desert
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Astrophotographer Osama Fathi created this incredible view of Perseid meteors streaking through circling star trails above Egypt’s Western Desert on Aug. 13-14, the night following the shower’s peak under dark new-moon skies.
Fathi imaged the star trails in 240 consecutive 25-second exposures, which captured the apparent motion of the stars in Earth’s sky as they seemed to circle the celestial north pole and the North Star Polaris. The length of each trail reveals how far the stars appeared to move as Fathi captured their ancient light with his Sony A7 III camera and a 16-35 mm lens during the 100-minute shoot.
But Fathi wasn’t alone beneath the desert skies as he captured the scene.
“Capturing this photo in Egypt’s Western Desert during the Perseids was an unforgettable experience,” Fathi told Space.com in an email. “The night was exceptionally clear and I was surrounded by around 200 fellow astronomy enthusiasts sharing stories, stargazing and photographing the sky.”
Perseid meteors appear as unbroken streaks of light, captured in a single exposure as tiny particles — often no larger than a grain of sand — burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in the blink of an eye.
Dotted trails closer to the horizon depict the trajectories of satellites as they passed silently through the skies over Egypt’s Western Desert. Fathi captured the landscape and starscape separately before combining, or stacking, the images into a mesmerizing image.
The result is a gorgeous nightscape that highlights the beauty of the natural landscape, the rotation of Earth and the natural light show of the Perseid meteor shower that we experience as Earth passes through the trail of debris shed by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
Want to capture beautiful images of the night sky for yourself? Then be sure to read our guide to photographing star trails, along with our picks of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography available in 2026.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your photos of the night sky with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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