A Timelapse of the Moon, Milky Way, Meteors, and Smoke Over Lake Tahoe

Back in 2016, photographer Phil Mosby left his camera overnight on a mountainside overlooking Lake Tahoe and had it snap photos over 9 hours. What resulted was this strangely beautiful timelapse that shows the setting moon, the Milky Way, Perseids meteors, and smoke from nearby wildfires.

The photos were shot on August 10th overlooking Incline Village, Nevada, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. Mosby was using a Nikon D610, Tamron 24-70mm lens, battery grip, and intervalometer.

Since the photos were exposed for the stars, the Moon was overexposed as it set, causing a strangely beautiful lens flare effect reminiscent of SpaceX’s UFO rocket launches.

“There are shooting stars in this video from the Perseid meteor shower, but they appear as flickers that last for only one frame,” Mosby writes. “Anything that has movement to it is a satellite or an airplane.”

Mosby previously shared the story of how his night sky photos went from the pages of Reddit to the walls of NASA. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook, and Instagram.