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 . Scroll down for video . 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 . 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 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 .
Loch Ness captured the image from Drumnadrochit . This is on the west coast of John Alasdair Macdonald 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 .