http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200908...xpectedtonight

anyone gonna try to take pics of this? i might try and see tonight...for those who have shot meteors or star trails before...any tips on settings(exposure,f/stop,etc...)?

 

I've never tried to image meteors so I can't give any specific advice. Generally speaking, I think you'd just want to leave the shutter open for as long as possible. I'd suggest experimenting to find the longest possible exposure time before the ambient sky glow in your area starts overwhelming the frame too much for your tastes. Once you've found that exposure time, just manual focus at infinity and have at it. The rest is probably just down to luck.

BTW, while the Perseid meteors all appear to originate from the constellation Perseus that doesn't necessarily mean that's the part of the sky where you will see them. They can appear pretty much anywhere. If you traced the streaks of the meteors backwards they would all appear to have originated from Perseus.

 

thanks billiam...
noob question...exactly how do you focus to infinity?

 

Turn the focus ring until the indicator points at

.

 

thanks..i'll try it out tonight

 

I may give this a go tonight. Last time I took pics of the sky was when I was trying to get a pic of Mars (with great success).

 

I think taking pictures of meteors would be brutally hard, since you have no idea where to look. Just use long shutters, and shoot a lot. A lot.

Even if you are just sitting there watching, basically all you can do is lie back, and let your vision relax so you see as much of the sky as you can. It's fun though, It gets cold though if you stay up all night like I did.

- Frank

 

You are also better getting away from city lights

 

I'm so lucky that the universe puts on it's own fireworks for my bday every year.

 

happy birthday?

 

I always said the same thing about me!

 

Happy Birthday D! I think! Go make some of your own fireworks..

 

I went out looking for meteors tonight.

I failed.

 

me too...got up early and got to work roun 5am with my camera to try again...failed again...

 

I was out until shortly after midnight local time and didn't see a thing. One of the guys from my astronomy club said he stayed out until 3:45am and only saw five or six.

 

I got a couple text messages about this "12am-5am".. I went to bed. lol

 

I remember being in Northern Maine when I was about 14-15 and there was the most amazing meteor shower Ive ever seen, I was just laying on a picnic table watching it in amazement there were so many of them

 

I just cheated and was born on 7/4

 

The moon should be less in the way tonight, and it's just slightly past the peak, so I may try to get out tonight. I 'd last night. Damn summer cold...

 

gonna try tonight again..forecast calls for clear skies...
any tips on settings? iv'e seen alot of people doing 800-1600 ISO...widest aperture available @ between 17-55mm...

 

I've never tried shooting them, I just like to go watch. I would definitely try the highest ISO your camera will tolerate well, since they aren't very bright. I'd love to hear how it goes for you.

 

Bulb mode maybe

 

Image Date: 2009:08:12 01:01:15
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 70.0mm
Exposure Time: 0.800 s
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO equiv: 1000
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

 

srika. Is that image sensor dirt

This reminds me of the time I tried taking pictures of fireflies in flight. That was definitely a moment.

 

man, no. I believe the spot at the top is Jupiter. Or some other large planet. and the one at the bottom is most likely, Mars, I guess. It was my first time doing astrophotography, I need more practice with my aperture control and offsets.

 

I think he was joking with you, can't really make out what it is

 

I took a picture of Jupiter last night. I had to look it up in charts to determine what it was.

400mm just isn't enough to see detail. But still cool to my geeky self.

 

for those who are interested...it's suppose to be pretty good again tonight...

http://www.spaceweather.com/

 

I think this stuff is cool... super hard to get picks I bet... 3 to 4 hour exposure times...

 

In the example pictures it seems like people are using high iso. Like 800 to 3200 and 20-30 second shitter.

 

Did I really just type shitter instead of shutter??

 

OLO

 

and a motor mount to keep the regular stars from streaking too...

 

You'd be amazed at what you might be able to see if you cropped in on that. I've seen some pretty good images of Jupiter when people have cropped in. Also Saturn

 

That is a 100% crop of the original image.

I tried enlarging it and saw nothing of interest. If I boost the brightness and contrast, I see what I think are 2 of the 4 visible Jupiter moons. 400mm just isn't enough for astro-photography.

I really want to get a telescope setup at some point.

 

I'm thinking the shot I saw then was maybe a 600-800 it was a shot of the moon, in the lower corner it was Saturn, the guy did a crop of it, you could see the rings. It was grainy has shit.

 

I beg to differ sir. You just need to image appropriate objects for the focal lengths at your disposal.

These were captured by a member of my astronomy club. I'm about 80% certain they were acquired through a Canon 70-200/2.8. The first two at 100mm and the last one at 200mm.







The camera used was definitely not a DSLR though.
http://www.sbig.com/sbwhtmls/large_f...s.htm#Research

Here's the mount he has.
http://www.astro-physics.com/index.h.../900gto/900gto

 

Amazing

 

Wow.

 

Those pics are so cool