One of the most striking meteor showers of the year shot over the skies of Scotland at the weekend - not that many of us were able to see it.

After a week of building our hopes up, vast clouds rolled in like bouncers at the world's biggest galactic party, taking with them our chance of a shooting star extravaganza.

Despite the set back, a few determined souls still went out into the darkness with their cameras and battled on to find if not the perfect shot, then as close to it as possible.

Michael Rennie popped out a few days earlier in Fife before the shower's peak and was able to catch a few cracking shots.

He waited the time away in a hammock by the side of the road until the first few stars shot overhead.

"It peaks every year around this time," says Michael, who blogged about his adventure.

"As the earth passes through the trail of dust left behind the Comet Swift-Tuttle, one of the largest objects to regularly pass close to planet earth."

Meteor showers occur when the Earth ploughs into small particles in space left behind by a comet or asteroid.

Every year our planet passes through the trail of the comet, causing the shower to appear with 'shooting stars' entering the Earth's upper atmosphere at around 130,000mph.

Those with powerful lenses are able to pick up a few star trails as well as the fine diamond scatter of the Milky Way, such as this shot over Scotland by RSE Photography.

The meteor shower is one of the most spectacular shows of the year, with meteors being seen from the July 17 through to the August 24.

The best shots this year have come from down south, particularly in Devonshire and along the coast.

Kimmeridge Bay down in Dorset also offered clear skies for a few great shots.

This image, with the Clavell Tower in the foreground, taken by Andy Lyons captures one of the star trails.

The best shots came from Nasa and their professional eyes on the sky, in particular this brilliant shot from West Virginia.

In this 30 second exposure taken with a circular fish-eye lens, a meteor streaks across the sky as a photographer wipes moisture from the camera lenses.

Not all Scots were as lucky to get so detailed a shot, though the time spent waiting was not wasted.

Like this hardy snapper shows, if you can't find a star trail then you can always make your own instead.

And inject a bit of humour into the moment while you're at it.

Meteor showers occur several times during the year with another prominent display happening in November when the Leonid shower occurs.

The stunning Geminids meteor shower also takes place in December.

Considered by many to be the best meteor shower in the night sky, the Geminids can produce up to 60 multi-coloured meteors per hour at their peak.

So Scots shouldn't be too downhearted just yet as the winter months will bring with them another chance to get out there and fix their eyes to the sky.

Did you manage to take a shot of the Perseid meteor shower? Email your photos to laura.piper@stv.tv and we'll include them in our shooting star gallery.