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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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.
 
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 :(
Click to expand...

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.
 
Not sure if it's the best way but for me when I process the shots in Lightroom I usually adjust contrast higher and also increase highlights and lighter tones to get the stars to pop out more. I use higher ISOs to get more stars as I don't have a faster wide lens than f/4 but noise reduction in Lightroom is pretty good at sorting it out. Not saying its the best way, just what I usually do.
 
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