ABSTRACT
Meteor showers occur each year on regular dates, and are premier landscape astrophotography opportunities. This chapter explains the astronomy and characteristics of meteors and meteor showers, comets, asteroids, and the rare but spectacular phenomenon of bolides. Fireballs often leave smoke trails visible from the ground owing to their relatively large size; some smoke trails can remain visible for many minutes. Comets are masses of frozen gas and ice that orbit the sun on well-established trajectories. Most meteor showers only last a few days, since it only takes that long for the earth to pass completely through most debris fields. The best time to observe meteor showers is generally between midnight and dawn. In contrast to the primarily icy composition of comets that originate from beyond the solar system, asteroids are relatively large masses of solid rock and generally lie between Mars and Jupiter.
