'Lucky' Snapshot of Orionid Meteor Shower a Stunner (Photo)

Nina Embervine captured this photo of the Orionid Meteor Shower near Allenspark in Rocky Moutain National Park, Colorado on Oct. 20, 2012. She used a DSLR camera with a shutter speed at 18 seconds and ISO at 200. The meteor shower happens every October when the Earth passes through a stream of debris left by Halley's Comet. (Image credit: Nina Embervine)

The journey was perhaps more important than the destination for amateur night sky photographer, Nina Embervine, who captured this beautiful photo of the Orionid meteor shower on an impromptu stop while on her way to Rocky Moutain National Park's colossal Longs Peak mountain.

“I was stunned to find that the last picture I took captured a meteor shooting right above the moon, with the building and the moon reflecting on the water in the foreground. The photograph has not been altered in any way," she wrote in an email. "What incredible luck!"

She took this photo around 9:40 pm, Oct. 20, 2012 near Allenspark, Colorado with her first DSLR camera with a shutter speed at 18 seconds and ISO at 200.

The Orionid meteor shower occurs every October when the Earth passes through a stream of debris left by Halley's Comet. The meteors streak through Earth’s atmosphere at about 65 kilometers per second (150,000 mph) and appear to radiate from the constellation Orion which is how they got their name.[Orionid Meteor Shower of 2012 in Photos ]

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False-color image of a rare early Quadrantid, captured by a NASA meteor camera in 2010.

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Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.

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