# Perseid meteor shower peaking Aug. 12th.....



## Bulldawg76 (Jul 25, 2007)

any of you fellers know anything about trying to get some images?

tripod, timer or shutter release, set iso at 600?, lowest f stop?, 30 sec or 60 sec exposures?, widest angle and hope to get lucky?  am i on track?

other thoughts/ideas/suggestions??

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11jul_greatperseids.htm


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## ronfritz (Jul 25, 2007)

Well, I have tried the "point your camera at the north star and open the shutter for twenty or thirty minutes" thing.  Obviously requires a tripod but the results were as advertised.  I think if you tried it in the city you'd see some light pollution.  Meteors though...hmmm, I'd have to do some internet searching.

Here's a clip from one website...

Lunsford has taken plenty of meteor shower pictures successfully, and he recommends 10-minute exposures in dark areas. In brighter locations, five minute exposures will have to suffice, otherwise the image will appear foggy from overexposure.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/leonids_photographing.html


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## FERAL ONE (Jul 25, 2007)

also depends on the camera, my d50 will not tolerate long exposures at high iso, the pic would look like a wool blanket it would be so fuzzy!!!


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## Hoss (Jul 25, 2007)

Thanks for digging up the info Ron.  Never thought about trying to photograph em.  I just enjoy watching em.  Interesting idea Bulldawg76.  Let us see your results.

Hoss


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## Bulldawg76 (Jul 25, 2007)

hmmm, wonder if the d70 with the 18-70 @ 18 / f3.5 would even have a chance at it.  some of the google search stuff had folks using lenses capable of f1.8.

suppose i could drag out the n65 and get some good fast film.  

might be a good idea to do some test shots with both first, or at least have access to a cooler of beer during the actual night of effort so the whole thing isn't a waste if it doesn't work........


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## ronfritz (Jul 25, 2007)

Bulldawg - 

I used an OM-10 a bazillion years ago for my star shots and I don't think I shot it wide open.  I think one quick and easy test would just be to shoot the stars in the northern horizon for a few seconds to simulate the time a meteor would be visible.  I think you are on the right track with cranking up the ISO, at least to start with.


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## jj4301 (Jul 26, 2007)

If I am not mistaken, with a camera on a tripod and a long shutter release, you would not want a high ISO. If you wanting to capture something at night in the sky with a long exposure you do not need the high iso sensitivity as you would if you were shooting sports at night or anything of that sort.


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## Wade Chandler (Aug 4, 2007)

When you shoot at night with long exposures, you'll want to shoot with as low an ISO as your camera has to prevent the picture from being grainy.  Open your aperture as wide as it will go, with a wide angle lens this should be somewhere arount f2.8, and then make sure your long exposure noise reduction is turned on in your camera.  The noise reduction will be performed by the camera right after the exposure and will take the same amount of time that the exposure was.  For example, if the shot was 30 minutes then the noise reduction will take an additional 30 minutes during which you cannot take another picture, but it will drastically improve the quality of the picture.  Also, during the time the noise reduction is being performed, the camera needs to stay at roughly the same temperature as it was when the exposure was recorded.  Hope this helps some!  Also, make sure you find a dark place with as little ambient light as possible!


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## Bulldawg76 (Aug 5, 2007)

i don't have anything that open (2.8) and the most open I can get is 3.5 @ 18mm.  so, i'll have to try and find an iso balance that will work.  may not work at all.


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## jason308 (Aug 10, 2007)

So to summarize, maybe we could try a couple minute exposure at a low ISO with the lens opened up?  Like Bulldawg, I don't have a f/2.8 wide angle lens, so my 3.5 @18 mm will have to work.  I believe that is what I gathered from the above posts...I may have to stay up Sunday night...Thanks! 

Do these things last all night?


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## rip18 (Aug 11, 2007)

Some good suggestions above.

One thing I learned the first time I went to take fireworks shots - practice in the dark FIRST!!!  Learn where the little button is that turns on the backlight in your camera LCD display - really hard to find the bulb setting if you can't light up your display.  Also take a small flashlight - the little red keychain LED worked well once I went & got my wife's keys...


I also picked up this tip on shooting manual sky shots from a guy on another forum that shoots lots of night shots.

Set your camera to 400 ISO.

Decide what length lens (shorter is better) you want to use & shoot it wide open on a tripod.

Divide lens length INTO 600 to get a shutter speed in seconds.

So a 50 mm lens would have a shutter speed of 12 seconds.  A 60 mm lens would be 10 seconds.  A 24 mm lens would be 25 seconds. 

This would also work well with an "object" (rock, tent, flower, tree, etc.) in the foreground that could be "painted" with a flashlight....

With that method, you would try LOTS of shots & hope you got lucky?


Good luck to anyone who tries!


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## Bulldawg76 (Aug 11, 2007)

hmmmm, and w/out a remote, the longest shot will be 30s.  

and got to remember to turn on the NR feature.  

Jason, seems like they are supposed to peak sunday night/monday morning at 2:00.  supposed to be up to 60 per hour.  so hoping to catch some with those 30 second exposures.


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## rip18 (Aug 13, 2007)

It is about 15 until 1:00 now.  We've got about 50% cloud cover, & in 10 minutes of watching, I saw exactly zero meteors.  I'm going to watch for a while longer & then look again at the next baby feeding.


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## Wade Chandler (Aug 13, 2007)

Just did a 33 minute exposure, so hopefully something fell during that time, I'm waiting for the camera to do it's noise reduction.  About a minute after I closed the shutter I saw a nice one right in the middle of where I had the camera aimed, so I've got my fingers crossed.


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## ButcherTony (Aug 13, 2007)

iv seen about 4 in the last hour


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## Wade Chandler (Aug 13, 2007)

definitely didn't get any to show up, oh well.  Time for bed now even though the peak is still 45 mins away


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## jason308 (Aug 13, 2007)

Went out to the lake and set up (didn't even get out there til dark...).....Saw 12 of em total, I stayed out there from dark til a little after 1 but it kept clouding up (had a meeting this morning to attend, decided I'd be better off with some sleep)...My setup wasn't the greatest, but thats what I get for flyin by the seat of my britches....I did learn that this takes a WHOLE lotta luck, as well as some skill (definitely lacking there).....Had my wife's D40 and my D80 on the tripods, didn't have the remote cord so the longest shutter I could work with was 30 seconds.....Did have a wireless remote, but it didn't have a lock on it or anything to use the bulb mode....I didn't see anything glancing through my files, but if I have a chance to go through them some more this week and find something I will post it up....Oh well, it was a pretty night anyhow.....Thanks for all the tips and advice....

I will definitely be back next year with a better setup!!!!!!


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## Wade Chandler (Aug 13, 2007)

Well I did an hour exposure and no meteors showed up.  I think the problem was that I needed a higher iso because the meteors were faint.  I did turn out with a fairly nice star trail exposure though, but when I put it on the computer and opened the raw image processor it said the file was corrupted, so I guess it just turned into a learning process with nothing to show for it.  Oh well, there's always next time.

Jason, you may want to check your wireless remote because with mine when it is set to bulb exposure you don't have to continue to hold the shutter release button down, you just press it and then press it again when you want it to close, so you don't need any sort of lock on the button.


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## jason308 (Aug 13, 2007)

Wade.....The remote I bought is junk (or is suffering from a bad case of operator error).  It would seem that when you have it near the camera and press the button that the shutter would be released.  This is not the case, and rarely happens with mine (I even went in there and tried it out after I read your post earlier)....  Maybe this is why it wouldn't work with the bulb mode last night.....I will try another battery or something (just bought the remote yesterday).....Who knows....


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