Leniod Meteor Showers! - Star trails added

[Dbl]

I don't know if anyone is out photographing the meteor showers, I was out last night around 3am and saw a few but I believe tonight late is supposed to be peak. Up to 20 to 30 per hour here in North America. I will be out late again trying to capture a few. Never had a successful encounter shooting a....shooting star

It was supposed to be cloudy or partly cloudy tonight in the Cities but my last check of the satellite photo was clear skies! I hope that stays true.

Here is one from last night, just the night sky and experimenting with settings to get the good shot. I was just in town so had a lot of city light pollution so my exposures were a bit off from what I would expect.

I settled on a 20 second exposure because the stars moved a bit much at 30 seconds for a crystal clear sharp photo. The movement was acceptable to me at 20 seconds. I also shot with my WB selected to tungsten to bring the blue back from the stray city lights again. Note to self...get out of town! If you settle on some settings you can keep aperture and exposure time constant and just change your ISO to lighten or darken the sky to your taste. Easier to make one change only in the dark!

So 7D, 17-40L manually focused, ISO 800, f4, 20 seconds, tungsten white balance. Hopefully tonight the shots will include a meteor or two! Good luck and stay warm if you do get out. If you end up with any shots feel free to post them here!

[fishinchicks]

Looks like a squirrel was out trying to get a good look at the stars as well. (Lower left)

[Dbl]

You made me do a double take on that one! I had to wonder how I missed that one. Just looked at the large size original and it is nothing more than leaves. Though I must say I like your observation much better!

Here is a diagram of where to look as well.

[finnbay]

Good for you, Dan! I heard they were going to be visible for a couple of days, but the 3-4 a.m. scared me off. Good luck to anyone out trying go capture some!

[Dbl]

I am trying to decide if I am going to bed early or getting up very early. I may set up a second camera and let it shoot for an hour and see how many it captures, plus the star trails will be cool. We shall see.

[T.S128]

I was hoping someone on here was gonna try and get some pics. good luck

[MN Shutterbug]

I'll be looking forward to your shots Dan. Unfortunately, I love my sleep, so I'll pass as tempting as it may be.

[upnorth]

3 am you are dedicated!!!

[Dbl]

Well after being out from 2:00am until just after 5:15am I am still waiting it seems for a meteor picture The sky is rather large and trying to predict where a meteor will fall is darn near impossible! I did see quite a few, at least one every 5 to 10 minutes. Around 4:30 a very large bright one shot across the sky right in front of my camera 2 seconds after I opened the shutter! I thought I finally nailed it! After the shot I checked the LCD and discovered it passed right under my framed shot I am off to catch a bit of sleep but will have a shot or two to post when I get a chance later today. I did manage a few shots of star trails.

[eyeguy 54]

Dedicated! That's what you are. I thought about it but chasing smallies at 9 so I slept!

[finnbay]

Spent some time trying to get some Persiads earlier this fall and know your frustrations! Looking forward to your shots!

[Catmendo]

Thanks for sharing that info Dan. I might have to make the effort if the sky remains clear tonight!

[Dbl]

I will post a few star trail results from last night. I had two cameras set up, one for long exposure star trails and the other for quicker meteor shots. I got four exposures on the star trail camera until the battery died. One at 50 minutes, 40 minutes and the last one that died at 12 minutes. That camera was on a remote switch that locks to keep the shutter open on "bulb".

The second camera had a Pocket Wizard on it and one in my hand for triggering the camera. This made it nice if I wanted to sit in my truck and warm up but still shoot the sky. I could have used a time lapse setting as well to shoot continuous shots for say three hours. I suppose I could have just taken a nap

I was at a regional park that still had light pollution from town. You really need to be a long way from the city to get rid of all that spare light! When shooting toward town my ISO was 400, when shooting away from town it was 1250 to 1000. With all that additional light many of the stars just didn't show up so the effect just wasn't as good.

I am guessing there are a lot of meteor trails in these shots, too bad they get covered with the movement of the long exposure!

#1 Star trails with a 12 minute exposure.

#2 Star trail with a 40 minute exposure.

#3 And with a 50 minute exposure.

#4 The last shows the vast amount of light pollution from the metro. ISO 400, f4, 20 seconds.

[MN Shutterbug]

Neat stuff.

[Catmendo]

Very interesting Dan! I put forth an attempt last night. However due to the continuing strong southerly south winds my attempt was short lived brrrrrrrrr!

Just curious as to how long you actually spent under the stars and how many meteors did you witness?

[Dbl]

Stu, 3 1/2 hours out and I saw at least 40 or so. Problem was my camera was not pointed at any of them! You can see I had no wind to contend with, the trees are sharp as can be even with a 50 minute exposure. Temp was about -8 C (for our Canadian brethren) so that was bearable with no wind.

It was a beautiful evening to be out until about 5:15am when an inconsiderate fool pulled up next to me, watches the sky for about 2 minutes and then started talking on his cell phone about how he had not seen any yet and he should go back to his warm bed. While he was on the phone I saw two meteors! I had planned on staying until sunrise but that made me pull up stakes and head home.

[yakfisher]

Nice work. We a saw a few this morning as we were departing Indianapolis at 5:45am (by we I mean the other guy I was with.) Too bad you were pointed in the wrong direction too. I saw a meteor a few years back that lit up the sky light a 155mm artillery flare. Next time!