Perseid meteors on Wednesday

[Ian]

I was wondering if anyone was going to attempt some long exposure photography on Wednesday night, which is the peak time for the Perseid meteor season? Has anyone attempted this in the past? Any tips?

Ian

[devilgas]

at risk of stating the obvious, tripod and remote release are essential. dark skies help, so ideally need to get out into the countryside away from street lights and their associated glow.

you need to be able to locate perseus in the sky as the streaks will radiate from this point in the sky. ideally, centre the image on the pole / north star. perseus is located in the north east, and 'below' polaris (about 15-25 deg of elevation...10 deg being about the width of a fist of an outstretched arm)

wide angle (the wider the better) is best as the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky - i'll be using the 10mm siggy.

settings - aperture wide open, ISO 200 or 400 (depends on the amount of light pollution at your location), shutter speeds again depend on the amount of light pollution. start with 30s, take a few test shots and review the pics. if using shorter exposures, then the iso could be bumped up to capture fainter stars / meteors. to get nice star trail photos, then the exposures will need to be significantly longer. light pollution once again comes into this. set camera into continuous shooting mode, manual focus (prefocus on a distant object) and latch the shutter release open.

set camera up in house. take camera outside at least 30 mins before you intend to start shooting so the temp can match that of outside and not have the lens fog over. for the cool down, cover the camera with a chamois etc to reduce the effect of dew forming on it.

the peak of the perseid shower sees about 120 meteors per hour, however this year is expected to be better with rates nearly double this. the peak is either tonight around midnight or tomorrow around midnight.

the best photos i've seen have many light streaks and were shot using shutter speeds of over 10mins. dark skies are essential to have any chance of getting results like that.

ideally, a tree or 2 silhouetted on the horizon will help to anchor the photo and add something recognisable to the photo.

warm clothing, reclining chair and even a flask of hot drink will make viewing a lot more comfortable.

finally, hope it doesn't cloud over

link to nasa site... http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...rseids2009.htm

[Ian]

Sounds like great advice!

I have read that the brightness of the moon could be a problem this year. But I will have a stab...

Ian

[devilgas]

yeah, it will be. it's about 1/2 - 2/3 full and relatively close to perseus. you can try to limit its affects by masking it with some object (tree etc) but there will still be residual glow.

[devilgas]

a useful reference for, predominantly, stuff that moves across the sky (iridium flares get addictive) & star charts is http://www.heavens-above.com

just found http://www.mystarslive.com/ for star maps. gives elevations & compass bearings (easier to work with than RA/dec)

[jojo]

Thanks for this Dave - if I can stay awake I'll have a go myself.

jo

[ekkl]

A great website for any astronomical event is www.spaceweather.com

Lots of excellent stuff there and always have links to some good photos taken by site readers.

The latest Perseids pictures can be found here;

http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gall...7r1lcmulgf7of4

.....and almost all the pics have the camera settings the photographer used when they took the picture, it's quite handy.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by jojo

Thanks for this Dave - if I can stay awake I'll have a go myself.

jo

Well, here I am, everything at the ready and waiting for ....... the clouds to clear! Yeah, right! Hope somebody else on the forum has had better luck? Will try again tomorrow

jo

[Ian]

No clouds in Hemel Hempstead - but no meteors either

Not even sure the camera was pointing in the right direction (vaguely up and northwards!).

This was a four minute exposure, ISO 200, f/8, 14mm (35mm equivalent).

If the conditions are right I may try again tomorrow night.

Ian

[devilgas]

blue skies all day. blue skies all evening. 9pm, clouds roll in. check every half hour until 1am. 8am still 100% cloud cover. so, situation normal for uk astronomy and 'interesting' events.

ian....
the elevation looks a little high, however you did get perseus in the lower right corner of your photo. the radiant point is about 1/3 of the way UP the photo, and about 1/5 from the RIGHT edge.

there is a lot of light pollution in the photo. this will hide all of the fainter meteors and the aperture isn't wide enough. if you can, get to a rural location and experiment with settings until you can get a lot of faint stars showing. you'll then have a better chance of capturing more meteors.

[ekkl]

Well I was very disappointed last night with this. I got to see two really good ones and two flares, the flares were brilliant and I managed to catch one as I was setting up in the garden but it was out of focus, just my luck.

I literally sat out the back with a beer and had the remote for my camera in the other hand clicking away every 30 seconds or so. Went through two batteries and didn't get anything.

Closest was when a seagull flew quite low right across the camera so I stopped the exposure to delete the picture and lo and behold, a really bright one shot across the sky from east to west just to the left of Cassiopeia. Gutted.

Anyhow, I was going to sit out tonight, now after work but it is too cloudy although there are a few gaps in the cloud it's just not worth it.

[devilgas]

clouds finally parted at 7am this morning (briefly unfortunately). so, the 2 'best' nights of viewing were totally blanked out. if, by some miracle, i've got clear skies, i'll give it a go later.

[Ian]

Yes - no chance for me last night as it was too cloudy. I will keep an eye on the sky tonight though.

Ian