dslr settings for capturing meteor shower tonight

[ACS-e36]

hey all so i was looking to take pictures of tonights meteor shower but im still quite new with this camera and would like to save the hassle of playing with settings later on. any help would greatly be appreciated! within the next few hours too of course. thanks!

[sputnik]

Unless you are shooting with a telescope, you probably won't be able to capture much of anything tonight.

You will have a half moon tonight which will make conditions too bright to photograph the relatively dim meteors.

If there was no moon in the sky (new moon) you would have to be in an area that was PITCH BLACK. Even the slightest amount of light would result in over exposed images. You would basically have to be in a field where you wouldn't even be able to see your hand in front of your face.

As for camera settings you would most likely need a wide open aperture and LONG (10-30 second) exposure times.

Meteorites are pretty dim and need a ton of light to see. However the other thing you have to keep in mind is that the stars are also moving across the sky. So if your exposure times are too long, all of the stars will also appear to be moving.

[Cos]

:hijack:

sorry :)

When is the meteor shower? I googled it and the science center is out of date by 3 years.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by Cos
:hijack:

sorry :)

When is the meteor shower? I googled it and the science center is out of date by 3 years.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=leonid+meteor+shower+2009

[Cos]

^^ if i was known it was the leonid meteor shower it would have been a bit easier.

Try this:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=meteor%20shower%20calgary

1.) Talks about jupiter
2.) is the 3 year old science center like I mentioned in my first post
3.) is something from the sun about kingston ontario.


Thanks for the help tho. :rolleyes:

[ACS-e36]

what ISO should i be using?

[Mckenzie]

I came across this site which is informative. I also want to shoot it, but have a feeling I'm ill equipped for it.

http://www.danheller.com/star-trails.html

Apparently between 12-5 am is optimal.

[ACS-e36]

I seen a few already tonight however my apperature isn't big enough (4.0)

[KKY]

Anyone got any pictures of the meteor shower? I didn't see anything last night. But I was only out there for a few minutes...

[mboldt]

I was out last night and drove about 15 minutes East of Airdrie to the middle of no where, tried out some long exposures (5+ minutes)

I saw a lot of Meteors, however they were so randomly all over the sky I couldn't really catch any, it was weird, but super cool. I'd have to do shorter exposures to get them good I think.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/mboldt/DSC_1671.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/mboldt/DSC_1675.jpg

[mboldt]

Going out tonight to Elbow Falls to shoot a 2 hour exposure =)

[sputnik]

Originally posted by mboldt
Going out tonight to Elbow Falls to shoot a 2 hour exposure =)

You will probably end up with an image looking like this.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01459/Perseids_1459889c.jpg

[mboldt]

I hope to catch something, either way I think 2 hours with waterfall and everything will look cool =)

Last night I started an exposure at F/22 not knowing how long it would take. After doing math it'd have to be 3 hours long so I ended it at 40 minutes and it was barely exposed LOL

If anyone wants to come out tonight and shoot, shoot me a PM!

[sputnik]

Originally posted by mboldt
I hope to catch something, either way I think 2 hours with waterfall and everything will look cool =)

Last night I started an exposure at F/22 not knowing how long it would take. After doing math it'd have to be 3 hours long so I ended it at 40 minutes and it was barely exposed LOL

If anyone wants to come out tonight and shoot, shoot me a PM!

While f/22 is good for capturing stationary objects, you probably won't have enough light to capture a meteor (unless it is VERY bright) since it will only last a second or two tops.

I would probably stick with a large f-stop and a shorter exposure time.

[Bukka]

I agree with sputnik
I shot this a few years back, and while it's not a good photo, it does contain a random shooting star in the top left corner.
Living out where I did at the time, it was quite common to see a few just sitting on the stairs outside my front door.

F/3.5 15 sec @ ISO 400.

Even @ F/3.5 the shooting star is still pretty dim.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a9/scarface1980/shoo.jpg

[sputnik]

At the end of the day, even if you get a shot of a shooting start it wont be that amazing.

Better off leaving the camera at home, kick back with a beer or two in a lawnchair and watch the show.

[mboldt]

It's supposed to be cloudy tonight. Blehhhh.