A rare simultaneous view of a meteor shower and the Northern Lights was photographed in Hokkaido, northern Japan, as the Perseid meteor shower peaked on Monday night.

The Perseids are visible annually around this time of year. They are one of three major meteor showers.

The director of an observatory took a sequence of photographs at Lake Notoro in the city of Abashiri for about 5 hours from shortly after 9:30 p.m.on Monday. The images show shooting stars and a red glowing aurora in the night sky.

Director Tsuda Hiroyuki of the observatory in the town of Rikubetsu says the aurora was visible to the naked eye.

He noted that the lights were easily observed in places at relatively low latitudes like Hokkaido due to solar flares -- explosions on the sun's surface.

Tsuda said it might be a once-in-a-lifetime event to see a low-latitude aurora and the Perseid meteor shower at the same time. He added he was thrilled to watch stars falling in the red lights.