This breathtaking picture captures an ethereal green ‘airglow’ spreading across the night sky at the precise moment a meteor flashes towards Earth.

The stunning scene unfolded over the snowy hills of the Elan Valley in Wales, reflected in the Graig Coch reservoir near Rhayader.

The aurora-like airglow - where energy from the sun reacts with chemicals in the planet’s atmosphere - appeared in front of a brilliantly clear Milky Way.

And just when it seemed the nocturnal scene could not get any more majestic, the meteoroid hurtled into view.

Professional photographer Sean Weekly caught the scene while out in the valley at the start of the month.

The 29-year-old said: “It was forecast clear nights for the whole evening and after all the bad snow we have had, I was very much looking forward to heading to my local international dark sky park in Elan Valley.

“It is truly a beautiful place to experience our stunning night sky.

“I was taking shots for a few hours, before I decided to move my location to the Graig Coch dam and reservoir."

He added: “I had seen one shooting star that evening which I hadn’t manage to capture.

“I decided to turn my attention to a nice image of our Milky Way galaxy across the reservoir.

“I was also aiming my camera north and started to see some green and purple colours appear in my photos.

“At first look, I thought it was the aurora, which has been seen here many times.

“However, the greens and purples in my image are actually a beautiful phenomenon known as airglow.”

But just as Sean was setting up his camera to get a picture of the green lights next to the Milky Way, the meteor came into view.

He added: “It didn’t take too long before this bright green blast appeared just south of the Milky Way.

“It all happened so slowly, the blast was actually a meteorite burning up through our atmosphere.”

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition tomorrow