Perseids meteor shower:

[MWHCVT]

I didn't bring my tablet or anything so I pretty much just have my phone and Fred. I might set up the camera for another load of shots once Its done.

Sounds like a plan, Fred sounds friendly my camera has been running in the back garden since a little past 11pm hopefully this time for effectively than last night where the cloud never cleared

 

[MWHCVT]

Just got in , seen plenty but camera was always facing the other way, and to think I only took one camera when I have 3! Ahhhh well

You silly boy you could have had them all on the go

 

[faddius]

Sounds like a plan, Fred sounds friendly my camera has been running in the back garden since a little past 11pm hopefully this time for effectively than last night where the cloud never cleared

It was the cloud cover that put me off going out last night. I'm glad I came out, whilst I can see a surprising amount of stars from my garden for an inner city location, it's nothing compared to where I am.

 

[dinners]

I'm giving up folks

First day at Primary school tomorrow for Fiona and she can't sleep. She's finally crashed on the sofa having come downstairs in a dream state.

I've just had to turn off all the gadgets in my eldest daughters room as she's back to 2nd year secondary school tomorrow.

The younger pre school boys are fast asleep but have nothing to do tomorrow but I know fine well the minute I try to put Fiona back to bed the three dogs at my feet will dash up the stairs and we'll be back to square one.

Oh and it's still bloody cloudy.

 

[u8myufo]

These stories need to go into the next Digital SLR magazine on how to do night shots

 

[insane_lewis]

I went out to a disused RAF base. (Kenley) in Surrey 5 mins from my house.

It was actually busy!! I wish i had longer I left at 11:30 to be fair my wife is 8 days over due and needed a wee haha.

I think I caught two of them. And I saw about 3 different satellites. One in particular. Very bright indeed, heading SW to NE. Even though I was on an airfield I found there to still be too much light pollution from London.

I must admit in an hour and a half I did expect to see more meteors.

 

[Nod]

What phone have you got Nod? There's some good apps out there for ISS times

Blackberry Kelly but I tend to plan better than that so will check out passes for the fortnight we're in Crete and head for the beach if there are any suitable passes.

Cock up #4 Nod forgets his passport

Mrs Nod's in charge of paperwork and she's well organised (which means I am too!!!)

The stoooooopidest thing of all is that I bought a rangefinder a few years back with a 24mm wide angle purely for long exposures like star trails. Only just remembered that fact though! (Even still got some film in the fridge.) Also managed to crick my neck slightly while trying to follow the ISS as it passed overhead. Going to make my golf lesson this afternoon a little uncomfortable.

 

[kelack]

Have a look at this site:

http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/

Might be useful for you

 

[kelack]

I went out to a disused RAF base. (Kenley) in Surrey 5 mins from my house.

It was actually busy!! I wish i had longer I left at 11:30 to be fair my wife is 8 days over due and needed a wee haha.

I think I caught two of them. And I saw about 3 different satellites. One in particular. Very bright indeed, heading SW to NE. Even though I was on an airfield I found there to still be too much light pollution from London.

I must admit in an hour and a half I did expect to see more meteors.

That's a shame. I went out in the garden about 10pm and in the 40 minutes I was out there, saw quite a few. I wonder if you could only see the really bright ones because of the light pollution then. When I went out again at half 1, there was no cloud at all and saw a great deal more. Some were quite faint but others were really bright and left a trail.

 

[Ian D J]

Indeed, as planned, I did get up at 2 am and was at the coastal edge at 2.30 am gazing at the stars. However, despite brilliant clear skies where I was able to see the Milky Way and that, it was NOT at all an easy task trying to catch at least a shooting star. Although I've got to see loads with my own eyes, I just couldn't capture one on the camera (wrong place, not bright enough, etc).
As soon as twilight appeared and frostbite was about to set in, I decided to do a bit of light painting using one of the Martello Towers - and that was when I just about caught that faint streak just above the top of the tower (to the left of that small cluster of stars).

Not as easy as it looks, though! Now I'll be spending the rest of today feeling jet-lagged.

 

[axnxdxy]

Really wanted I catch this but was working until 1 and had to be up at 6. Maybe next time!

 

[insane_lewis]

i caught one!!!! bit out of focus though (thats hard to sort in the pitch black!) but you can see now that even at a height of over 550ft above sea and in the middle of woodland the light pollution from london is still quite bad.

 

[Nod]

Have a look at this site:

http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/

Might be useful for you

Cheers for the link Kelly, it doesn't show the city we're staying near but I'm pretty sure Iraklio (Heraklion) is close enough to make little difference! (We'll be about 50 miles West of there.)

 

[MWHCVT]

Well this is my back garden effort from last night


Persied 2013 by mwhcvt, on Flickr

Well being stuck in the garden rather than getting out on location this year due to a recent road traffic accident I knew this was not going to be my best effort...but none the less I set the camera up and left it alone to do its thing...only to return 4 hours later to find about 3 out of the 4 hours were un-usable due to some of the worse condensation I've seen on one of my cameras to date but alas here you see the Persied activity that I did manage to capture merged into a single exposure with part of the Milky Way also showing...not too bad consider I live between the town of Rugby and the City of Coventry

 

[arclight]

I had a look at 0200. Lovely clear sky full of stars. Saw 5 meteors in 10 minutes. All were very faint.

 

[DorsetDude]

Liked Ians image but wondered what it would look like if he'd used a blue torch.

So.... (Please say Ian if you'd rather I took it down )

 

[faddius]

These stories need to go into the next Digital SLR magazine on how to do night shots

It was certainly an interesting night

 

[FlyingShrapnel]

what settings are best for capturing star, and specifically shooting stars? I would imagine shooting stars would need higher ISO than normal stars cos they move right?

 

[Martyn D]

Well this is my back garden effort from last night


Persied 2013 by mwhcvt, on Flickr

Well being stuck in the garden rather than getting out on location this year due to a recent road traffic accident I knew this was not going to be my best effort...but none the less I set the camera up and left it alone to do its thing...only to return 4 hours later to find about 3 out of the 4 hours were un-usable due to some of the worse condensation I've seen on one of my cameras to date but alas here you see the Persied activity that I did manage to capture merged into a single exposure with part of the Milky Way also showing...not too bad consider I live between the town of Rugby and the City of Coventry

Very nice....now for the learners questions
As far as my little knowledge goes an exposure longer than around 30 seconds makes the stars begin to trail, even when I merged 5 shots together I ended up with little trails so the burning question....where's your trails!

 

[Ricardodaforce]

Very nice....now for the learners questions
As far as my little knowledge goes an exposure longer than around 30 seconds makes the stars begin to trail, even when I merged 5 shots together I ended up with little trails so the burning question....where's your trails!

It's only a 30 second exposure. Just enough to avoid the trails

 

[Martyn D]

It's only a 30 second exposure. Just enough to avoid the trails

.... And now I feel stupid
Cheers Richard....I can see this night time photography getting very addictive, I just need to learn not to be so lazy and going to bed early!

 

[MWHCVT]

what settings are best for capturing star, and specifically shooting stars? I would imagine shooting stars would need higher ISO than normal stars cos they move right?

There is no real best settings so to speak as with every situation you need to adjust for the situation...however basically you would normally be looking at around a 30 second exposure...ISO800+ and an aperture in the region of f4-5.6 if you check my signature there is a link to my star trails tutorial you would be well serviced by giving that a good read

Very nice....now for the learners questions
As far as my little knowledge goes an exposure longer than around 30 seconds makes the stars begin to trail, even when I merged 5 shots together I ended up with little trails so the burning question....where's your trails!

First off thanks that was the quick edit at about 5am when very tired this is the improved cleaner edit


Persieds 2013 by mwhcvt, on Flickr

This is made up of 6x 30 second frames but its actually really only 1 frame because the other 5 are only the meteors layered in out of other exposures to make the single photo, that is as Richard said the reason that you don't see star trails but if you look at the largest version you'll see even here there is really short star trails

 

[Martyn D]

Cheers Matt....got it, I was thinking its full shots merged.
Now all I need is someone to Hoover up the clouds here to have another go tonight.

 

[MWHCVT]

Cheers Matt....got it, I was thinking its full shots merged.
Now all I need is someone to Hoover up the clouds here to have another go tonight.

At least two of the ones you see in the photo of mine has cloud partially covering them but there is always next year :bang:

 

[dinners]

These stories need to go into the next Digital SLR magazine on how to do night shots

Well it was certainly a shower for me lol

 

[Martyn D]

The clouds are disappearing!... Looks like it may be the camera coming out after all

 

[ynot]

I may head out tonight too. A few questions, what time are they due out tonight? Is there a website giving details?
What sort of camera settings should I be going for? A few websites are saying no more than f2 and 30 second exposure. Would this be correct?
Never shot anything like this before so any help would be great.

 

[Martyn D]

I may head out tonight too. A few questions, what time are they due out tonight? Is there a website giving details?
What sort of camera settings should I be going for? A few websites are saying no more than f2 and 30 second exposure. Would this be correct?
Never shot anything like this before so any help would be great.

I tend to look at this...
http://www.meteorwatch.org/perseid-meteorwatch-2013/
The ISS is coming over West to east at 22.12 aswell

 

[MWHCVT]

I may head out tonight too. A few questions, what time are they due out tonight? Is there a website giving details?
What sort of camera settings should I be going for? A few websites are saying no more than f2 and 30 second exposure. Would this be correct?
Never shot anything like this before so any help would be great.

The below should see you on good standing to get some meteors and personally I'd say any time after 11:30pm

There is no real best settings so to speak as with every situation you need to adjust for the situation...however basically you would normally be looking at around a 30 second exposure...ISO800+ and an aperture in the region of f4-5.6 if you check my signature there is a link to my star trails tutorial you would be well serviced by giving that a good read

 

[ynot]

Thanks to you both.

Ill hopefully give it a go tonight.

 

[faddius]

Thanks to you both.

Ill hopefully give it a go tonight.

Take company with you!

There again you may be a bit more sane than me and have less of an overly excited imagination.

 

[FlyingShrapnel]

There is no real best settings so to speak as with every situation you need to adjust for the situation...however basically you would normally be looking at around a 30 second exposure...ISO800+ and an aperture in the region of f4-5.6 if you check my signature there is a link to my star trails tutorial you would be well serviced by giving that a good read

thanks for the guide in your sig, will also give it a go tonight

 

[MWHCVT]

thanks for the guide in your sig, will also give it a go tonight

Your welcome I hope you have a successful evening

 

[FlyingShrapnel]

packed up my gear, wrapped up in many many layers, all good to go! looked up just as I walked out the house and... clouds have appeared out of nowhere in about half an hours time since i last checked :bang::bang::thumbsdown:

 

[Donnie]

Been out for about 2 hours and while I saw at least half a dozen, non one caught on camera

 

[u8myufo]

Well I think I really need to brush up on my technique I was actually just going for a static star shot over the tops of our house, like I explained to Matt I think I should have perhaps left it a bit later than around 10pm :shrug: Will try some different settings next time, my main issue was with hot pixels showing up, which is odd as I took a 30sec shot with the lens cap on and not one pixel showed up when veiwing the Raw file on the PC

 

[FlyingShrapnel]

brilliant capture on the second one, was that one frame or a stacked one? What settings were you using?

 

[Ian D J]

Liked Ians image but wondered what it would look like if he'd used a blue torch.

So.... (Please say Ian if you'd rather I took it down )

It looks cool - in the literal sense. Mind you, that's how I felt by dawnbreak as it was a lot colder than I thought. How could it still get so cold at night here in England in the middle of August?! . . . Actually, I should be able to answer that question myself come to think of it.

 

[u8myufo]

brilliant capture on the second one, was that one frame or a stacked one? What settings were you using?

Both of them are just one frame, #1 was 30sec F8 ISO 800
#2 was 30sec F10 ISO 640 I had taken a picture of a factory near us so forgot to change the aperture back, #2 is in fact the ISS going over.

 

[WilliamC]

My best Perseid from last night. Being new at this I'm not trying to do "arty" locations, I'm just trying to get meteors! 7D, 17mm, 25 secs, f2.8, ISO200, very light polluted. Pleased!