Perseids Meteor Shower tonight......12th Aug

I caught a fantastic one :)

The trail lasted a good 5 seconds...

perseids.jpg
 
How are there so many stars in that picture?! I've got almost entirely clear skies and I can't even see many stars, let alone meteors. :(
 
I'm no expert but I think it's just a question of getting somewhere with as little light pollution as possible (I used this Google Earth overlay to find the best spot) and then letting in as much light as possible. The settings that worked for me on a D700 were f/2.8, ISO800 and a 30s exposure.
 
Great pic Sam. :)

raspberreh said:
How are there so many stars in that picture?! I've got almost entirely clear skies and I can't even see many stars, let alone meteors. :(
Click to expand...

You might be surprised by how many the camera picks up as opposed to the naked eye. I saw loads of meteors, but with a 28mm lens on a 1.6 crop sensor my images are of stars only, though more than I noticed at the time. None of the damn meteors crossed my lens' path, and whenever I decided to try a different patch of sky invariably the dusty little sods waited till I moved the camera, before burning up where I'd previously been looking. Sods law. Did enjoy the attempt though. :)

Oh, and on my 450D I also used ISO 800 and 30 seconds with widest aperture.
 
Last edited:
far too cloudy here :(

Annoyed because when the northern lights should of been visible they weren't and the sky was amazingly clear :(
 
Some good photos on here already! Hoping to get out tonight to see some as couldn't last night. Fingers crossed for a clear sky!
 
Ryan, the camera, is far more sensitive than your eyes, particularly over long periods of time, and will always show more stars than just your eyes will. Also, as the light gathering ability of an optical system is defined by the aperture, even my 18-55 kit lens, having an aperture of about 50mm, which is about 10x wider than my eye, even when dark adapted, is gonna suck in a lot more light. (If you've got a pair of binoculars, you'll see what I mean). When you add in the light gather over time. Check out some of the real long exposure images, I'm talking about images that use longer than 20 minutes worth of exposure time, you'll see what I mean, loads of colour and seriously large numbers of stars.

Sam, that's a corker, and there's some other great shots on here.
 
Fabulous visibility here in my corner of Berkshire last night. It had been raining and then the skies cleared. Only went out for about 10 minutes and saw several. Amaaaaazing! So big and so long. They look incredibly close to earth (no they were not planes).

Sadly, I have no idea how to photograph them :(

Jenny
 
What a beautiful starry night it was here in Essex. I was able to see 3 beautiful ones even from my little back garden. I had no idea how to take pictures of stars but laid my camera on the garden table pointed at the sky, on 30 seconds and managed to get a few bright blobs on the resulting pictures.:lol: Not very impressive. I am glad some of you managed to get lovely pictures.
Sue
 
this was from last night, no meteors in this shot, but there's one just out of frame to the left, and er to the right, and there was one above the frame, and behind it etc etc :lol:

star.jpg
 
So is it worth having another go tonight?

I know the peak was last night, but might tonight be ok-ish?
 
clear as anything down here saw loads just gonna check the piccies
 
Very much so Andy, and possibly for a couple more nights too, although the activity will be tailing off.

Some more showers...

9th Sept - Piscid Peak (no alcohol involved :D), just after new moon
5th Nov - Taurid Peak, day before new moon
18th Nov - Leonid Peak, but that's a few days before full moon, so probably won't see any
14th Dec - Geminid Peak, first quarter moon
22nd Dec - Ursid Peak, too near full moon again, but there's indicated a total lunar ecclipse as the moon sets in the early morning.
 
csedgbeer said:
this was from last night, no meteors in this shot, but there's one just out of frame to the left, and er to the right, and there was one above the frame, and behind it etc etc :lol:

star.jpg
Click to expand...

You forgot the one hiding behind the tree.:)
 
jgs001 said:
Very much so Andy, and possibly for a couple more nights too, although the activity will be tailing off.

Some more showers...

9th Sept - Piscid Peak (no alcohol involved :D), just after new moon
5th Nov - Taurid Peak, day before new moon
18th Nov - Leonid Peak, but that's a few days before full moon, so probably won't see any
14th Dec - Geminid Peak, first quarter moon
22nd Dec - Ursid Peak, too near full moon again, but there's indicated a total lunar ecclipse as the moon sets in the early morning.
Click to expand...

Awesome.
Might have another stab at it this evening then!

Last night (well this morning!) was awesome. Still haven't had a chance to look at my shots.....

Thanks for the info mate.
The dates have been put in my diary :thumbs:
 
Chris, That's why I didn't bother with the camera this year... I had that last year... fired off over 200 or 300 frames and got 2 very faint ones...
 
I had a go last night - EOS 1000D on a 30" exposure using 2" self-timer - didn't get any meteors but I got a nice bit of morse-code

It was the flashing lights of an aircraft that had popped out between clouds whilst I wasn't looking. :thinking:
 
csedgbeer said:
this was from last night, no meteors in this shot, but there's one just out of frame to the left, and er to the right, and there was one above the frame, and behind it etc etc :lol:
Click to expand...

Sounds like the night I had :)
I was beginning to think they were not debris but manned craft who saw me and deliberately taunted me by being out of shot!
 
alexw9 said:
What settings and lens did you use?
Click to expand...

In the first one, Canon 30D + 17-85 IS USM

30 Seconds, ISO400, f/4 @ 17mm.

if you want to cut down on the light pollution, up the ISO and go for quicker shutter speeds - but alas I left my remote shutter release at home so I went for the longest shutter time just to give me a chance to stargaze between shots.
 
Headed out about 2330 last night as the skies were failry clear and spotted in the region of 20-25 meteors of variable intensity. Did I manage to snap any, not a chance......:bang:

In the end I decided to have a crack at star trails, I had to delete a couple of frames from where a Police car ruined the scene by pulling up with his headlights on, ended up they were looking for meteors as well.

Actually quite pleased with this for a first go, next time will find something for foreground interest..


Startrails.jpg
 
Roly, it's quite a nice star trail, how did you merge the files ? If using startrails, to remove the plane, paint over it in black on each sub it appears on.
 
will have a bash tonight- can I ask why so many f2.8's and f4's etc as I would have thought f8-f16 for distance or am I thinking incorrectly for 'space'?
 
cherokee1111 said:
will have a bash tonight- can I ask why so many f2.8's and f4's etc as I would have thought f8-f16 for distance or am I thinking incorrectly for 'space'?
Click to expand...

more light!

ideally you want to shot as wide as you can to get more light in before you get too much movement in the stars (if thats what you are after)

if i just want a static shot i'll shoot a max of 25 seconds in a single exposure at about f4 which is when you just start to see star movement, if you shot 25 seconds at say f11 you just wouldn't see too much
 
jgs001 said:
Roly, it's quite a nice star trail, how did you merge the files ? If using startrails, to remove the plane, paint over it in black on each sub it appears on.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info John, didn't think of that. It only appears on one frame so I think I might have another go at stacking it later on.
 
csedgbeer said:
more light!

ideally you want to shot as wide as you can to get more light in before you get too much movement in the stars (if thats what you are after)

if i just want a static shot i'll shoot a max of 25 seconds in a single exposure at about f4 which is when you just start to see star movement, if you shot 25 seconds at say f11 you just wouldn't see too much
Click to expand...

ahh thank you:thumbs:
 
Not a chance of anything happening here tonight.
P*****g down, and very cloudy at the moment :(
 
if it goes like last night, you might yet be in luck... cloudy here till just after 2200, when it cleared up almost miraculously ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top