The Loch Ness METEOR: Photographer captures shooting star lighting up the sky above lake thanks to 'sheer dumb luck'

  • John Alasdair Macdonald captured the image from Drumnadrochit
  • This is on the west coast of Loch Ness in Scotland
  • His 30-second long exposure shot was taken with a Sony RX100
  • He said that it was just ‘sheer dumb luck' that he managed to get the photo
  • The meteor was probably the size of a basketball and burned up in the atmosphere before it hit the ground 

By JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

A tour guide in the Scottish Highlands has captured the amazing moment a meteor burned up in the atmosphere in a stunning image.

His long-exposure shot of Loch Ness shows the shooting star streaking across the sky.

And the event is so bright that it casts its light across the water.

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John Alasdair Macdonald captured the image from Drumnadrochit on the west coast of Loch Ness in Scotland. His 30-second long exposure shot (shown) was taken with a Sony RX100. He said that it was just ‘sheer dumb luck' that he managed to get the photo

John Alasdair Macdonald captured the image from Drumnadrochit on the west coast of Loch Ness in Scotland. His 30-second long exposure shot (shown) was taken with a Sony RX100. He said that it was just ‘sheer dumb luck' that he managed to get the photo

The photographer was John Alasdair Macdonald, a tour guide in the Scottish Highlands from Drumnadrochit on the west shore of Loch Ness, who runs the website called The Hebridean Explorer. 

Mr Macdonald captured the 30-second long image using a Sony RX100 compact camera at about 9pm on Sunday.

And he said that it was just ‘sheer dumb luck’ that he managed to get the photo.

KNOW YOUR SPACE ROCKS 

An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt.

A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system.

A meteor is what we call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up.

This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere.

If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite.

Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets.

For example, if Earth passes through the detail of a comet, much of the debris burns up in the atmosphere, forming a meteor shower. 

Mr Macdonald, 42, wanted to take pictures of the night to advertise the area for his business.

The father-of-three, who lives in Drumnadrochit, near Inverness, said: ‘I’ve never seen a shooting star before, I couldn’t believe it. I quickly checked to see if my camera had picked it up, and it had. My wife called it sheer dumb luck.

‘I wasn’t out looking for it, it was completely unexpected. It was a total fluke.’

Nick Howes, a professional astronomer, told MailOnline that automatic triggering systems can be used to detect the bright motion of a meteor and ‘start the cameras rolling’ if others want to attempt to replicate the photo.

‘This one is, however, very aesthetically pleasing,’ he added.

Also of interest are the colours in the water in the photo, which are likely due to the particular scattering of light.

Eagle-eyed viewers might notice the colours of the Irish flag in the water, very apt considering it is St Patrick’s Day tomorrow.

The was taken near Drumnadrochit on the west shore of Loch Ness, shown here. Mr Macdonald, 42, wanted to take pictures of the night to advertise the area for his business

The was taken near Drumnadrochit on the west shore of Loch Ness, shown here. Mr Macdonald, 42, wanted to take pictures of the night to advertise the area for his business

The meteor was probably the size of a basketball and burned up in the atmosphere before it hit the ground. Hundreds of meteors enter Earth's atmosphere every day (illustration shown)

The meteor was probably the size of a basketball and burned up in the atmosphere before it hit the ground. Hundreds of meteors enter Earth's atmosphere every day (illustration shown)

A meteor like this is unlikely to very large, but the speed at which they enter the atmosphere produces the amazing shooting star.

‘In terms of size, it’s hard to tell with no scale reference, but a fireball this size could typically come from an object about the size of a baseball to basketball,’ said Mr Howes.

Hundreds of meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere every day, but very few - if any - make it to the surface as meteorites.

However, some experts have warned that we need to make more of an effort to track incoming asteroids, as they can cause damage - such as the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia on 15 February 2013, which seemingly came out of nowhere but injured hundreds when it exploded near the ground.

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