Milky Way Time-Lapse Captures Rare Glimpse of a Meteor Exploding in the Atmosphere

In mid-October, a meteor decided to explode in spectacular fashion in the night sky. Known as a ‘bolide fireball,’ a photographer named Ben Lewis was lucky enough to capture it and his video went viral the day after the event.

But he wasn’t the only one with camera pointed towards sky, and for our money, we think photographer Wes Eisenhauer was fortunate enough to capture it better.

Eisenhauer was shooting a Milky Way time-lapse from South Dakota (not that far from where Lewis was in Iowa) on October 16th when, around 11pm, he captured the fireball exploding and leaving behind a horseshoe-shaped puff of orange smoke in its wake — its dying breath if you will.

According to Eisenhauer, the time-lapse was captured with a Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm lens, and a Vello intervalometer doing much of the heavy lifting. Check out the video for yourself up top.