FYI - Perseid Meteor Shower This Weekend

BruceLee

BruceLee

BruceLee

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For anyone interested the Perseid meteor shower is most active this weekend, Sunday AM supposedly the best day, however tonight appears (for me in the Midlands/Wales) to be the only clear night to catch them.

Crescent moon from around midnight tonight may be a PITA as it's rising quite near to Perseus, but I'm going to gamble on it and head out to Wales.

There hasn't been that much in the news until this evening but some info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19196174
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide


Check the cloud cover here:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/?tab=map

Basically they will be coming from the North East, best time to see them is in the early hours of the morning but you should see a few before then.
 
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I tried this before when I lived in Bristol - no hope.
It's super dark here in the middle of nothing-ness so I might stay up and have a nosey.
 
I'm in Kefalonia, in the very quiet Fiskardo so should hopefully be able to see this, I will keep an eye out.

Having never shot meteors or stars before, any tips for settings to use & what not?
 
Just seen some meteors just now, I may go and look a little later when the sky is a bit darker. I wont be shooting photos though since I dont have a tripod.
 
Flare said:
I'm in Kefalonia, in the very quiet Fiskardo so should hopefully be able to see this, I will keep an eye out.

Having never shot meteors or stars before, any tips for settings to use & what not?
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I went to Kefalonia years ago, its a beautiful island. Ive never shot meteors before so I cant really help. Im sure others on here will know though.
 
roderz88 said:
I went to Kefalonia years ago, its a beautiful island. Ive never shot meteors before so I cant really help. Im sure others on here will know though.
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Where i am, Fiskardo, is beautiful and right away from the nearest city so i'll hopefully see some shooting stars! I have just posted a picture of some lightening from last year in the "Post your pictures here" thread if you want a look :)
 
Flare said:
Where i am, Fiskardo, is beautiful and right away from the nearest city so i'll hopefully see some shooting stars! I have just posted a picture of some lightening from last year in the "Post your pictures here" thread if you want a look :)
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Go for it, I'd like to see that!

Thanks to the OP for reminding us about the shower. I hope the weather remains clear as its pretty good tonight and the sky is nice and clear, but its just a shame I live in an urban environment so light pollution = meh :(
 
Saw lots last night at Lake Vrynwy in Wales, very clear night, good fun, didn't catch any on camera though.

I was shooting with my 12-24mm f/4 lens, f/4 ISO 1000-1600 and 30 seconds to try and catch the meteor shower, they were everywhere except in the frame.

Use your widest lens and stick focus to manual and infinity/hyperfocal for whatever aperture you are using. High ISO to get more stars at least (ISO 800 at least I would say), then just keep taking shots.

D300s
12mm f/4 30 seconds
ISO 1600

DSC_6882.jpg
 
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You should be able to, stick it at 18mm, highish ISO (same sensor as the D300s) although you may have problems getting focus so use a torch on something a reasonable distance away, hyperfocal for 18mm f/3.5 is 5 metres away, so try and focus on something further than that.
 
Seen one possible streak across the sky, yet its way too cloudy (sadly) to take enough consistent shots to capture one :(
 
BruceLee said:
Saw lots last night at Lake Vrynwy in Wales, very clear night, good fun, didn't catch any on camera though.

I was shooting with my 12-24mm f/4 lens, f/4 ISO 1000-1600 and 30 seconds to try and catch the meteor shower, they were everywhere except in the frame.

Use your widest lens and stick focus to manual and infinity/hyperfocal for whatever aperture you are using. High ISO to get more stars at least (ISO 800 at least I would say), then just keep taking shots.

D300s
12mm f/4 30 seconds
ISO 1600

DSC_6882.jpg
Click to expand...

Oddly enough, that's where I took my first photos with my 12-24, years ago :) It's so nice around there :)

Annoyingly there is cloud cover tonight, just like the other week when the moon was all orange :(
 
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Here in Fiskardo, Greece the sky is completely clear. I just popped out in to the garden without my gear to see if there were any and I just saw a pretty big streak, just the one in about the 5 - 10 minutes I was outside.

In an hour or so when most of the restaurants and shops are closed (have turned their big outdoor lights off) i'm going to go for a walk away from the town to some old ruins on a hill to try & get some good shots. Oh and I am 2 hours ahead here. :)
 
Hmm might have hit gold with a few images. I've got quite a bold streak on one of them which is near the centre of the frame and a few shots where I've got a few very weak streaks near the edges of the same framed portion of the sky. Sadly the bold streak is behind a weak cloud which looks like its refracted it slightly which is VERY annoying -.-

Having to shoot at 70mm btw! The only wider lens I own is the 50mm mk ii but I don't have a lens hood for it and the street lights around here are very high, making everything have a crap orange tint to it when I used that lens :(
 
James J said:
Hmm might have hit gold with a few images. I've got quite a bold streak on one of them which is near the centre of the frame and a few shots where I've got a few very weak streaks near the edges of the same framed portion of the sky. Sadly the bold streak is behind a weak cloud which looks like its refracted it slightly which is VERY annoying -.-

Having to shoot at 70mm btw! The only wider lens I own is the 50mm mk ii but I don't have a lens hood for it and the street lights around here are very high, making everything have a crap orange tint to it when I used that lens :(
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Tape some thin cardboard round the end of the lens :p


Too cloudy here :(
 
Well, I went out at 2am & all was well; they sky was perfect, i watched the bright orange crescent moon rise from the ocean & saw a couple of very bright meteors non of which i managed to capture. Not long after getting there cloud started to come in as a result of the many storms that have been happening everywhere around here but where I am & now you can barely see the sky so I called it a night at 3:30 am with some nice shots but no meteors :( :( :(


I saw surprisingly few meteors considering how clear the sky was when i was first out.

Will there be much chance of seeing them tomorrow?
 
Flare said:
Well, I went out at 2am & all was well; they sky was perfect, i watched the bright orange crescent moon rise from the ocean & saw a couple of very bright meteors non of which i managed to capture. Not long after getting there cloud started to come in as a result of the many storms that have been happening everywhere around here but where I am & now you can barely see the sky so I called it a night at 3:30 am with some nice shots but no meteors :( :( :(


I saw surprisingly few meteors considering how clear the sky was when i was first out.

Will there be much chance of seeing them tomorrow?
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Yeah tomorrow night should also be pretty good.
 
ElDude said:
Oddly enough, that's where I took my first photos with my 12-24, years ago :) It's so nice around there :)

Annoyingly there is cloud cover tonight, just like the other week when the moon was all orange :(
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I've only been twice but I want to go back, the little picnic areas are nice (where that shot was taken). 2 hours drive each way was a bit of a trek just for last night but really worth it for the clear skies, could easily see the Milky Way etc. There were even some fireworks going off from the hotel by the dam which was unexpected :)

For shots like this I wish I had something wider, might get the 8mm Samyang as a cheap wide lens for night shots.

Will see what the weather is like tomorrow night but I will need to find a decent area to shoot it. Tomorrow is supposedly the last good night to see them but they should still be around next week, just not as many.
 
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