Meteor shower Aug. 12

bonniejo · August 4, 2007

For those of you who have the right camera and equipment, there will be a meteor shower on the 12th. I will try to get some pics of it but my camera is not well equiped for night shots. This will be the first shower I've ever seen, so I'm really excited!! Just thought I would share.:D

z_28 · August 4, 2007

Are you really so young ???
Meteor showers are few times every year, they are cyclic events.

bonniejo · August 4, 2007

z_28 wrote:

Are you really so young ???
Meteor showers are few times every year, they are cyclic events.

Young? Well kinda. I have always fell asleep or didn't remember when the showers were. I have 5 kids, so its hard to get out of the house by myself.

JillG · August 6, 2007

Thanks for the advance notice ! I know what you mean about not being able to go out and see a shower, It's too late, or it's raining or cloudy. I've seen very few. My most memorable one was the time we got up a 3am, grabbed coffee, blankets and pillows put on coats and went out into the back yard and just laid on the ground

. Maybe when your kids are old enough you may be able to do something similar.

Jill

Thwack · August 11, 2007

If you're reading this thread and you've never taken pictures of the night sky, I suggest you go out early and PRACTICE.

My first several attempts, even after reading an old thread on taking meteor pics, came out solid black. d'oh!

Fortunately, I'd gone out early to do some tuning and eventually found settings that at least show stars (and I captured one passing airplane which looks sort of cool tool).

Now, I just need some cooperative meteors to see if I'm close to the right setup or if I need a lot more tuning. Fortunately, I'm well away from the massive light pollution of home (silicon valley) and out in the boonies (northwest of Yosemite).

If my neighbors would hurry up and go to sleep, I'd have even darker conditions.

I like the first one best (nice trees at the bottom if it doesn't come out too dark in the smaller size). I need to tweak where I'm aiming but I need to see a couple meteors first to be certain I'm looking in roughly the right area.

Another way to find true north is to take a couple long exposure shots with maybe a minute in between them. Put them back to back and flip between them (I use the little roller on my Kensington Trackball for this)...you'll see the star positions change from frame to frame and if you're close to true north, you can see stars on one side of the pic moving up and on the other side of the pic, they're moving down...

Art Scott · August 11, 2007

Thwack wrote:

If you're reading this thread and you've never taken pictures of the night sky, I suggest you go out early and PRACTICE.

Another way to find true north is to take a couple long exposure shots with maybe a minute in between them. Put them back to back and flip between them (I use the little roller on my Kensington Trackball for this)...you'll see the star positions change from frame to frame and if you're close to true north, you can see stars on one side of the pic moving up and on the other side of the pic, they're moving down...

in the N. Hemishpere, isn't true north just a few degress left of mag. north (the north shown on your compass, What don't know what a compass is...

or GPS unit).....I just can't remember how many degrees......time for a google I guess:D:D

rofl

Thwack · August 11, 2007

In my area, true north and magnetic north are roughly 15 degrees apart*. The closest compass I have handy is back at the airport (built into the plane that brought me out here to the boonies) so it's not much help right now.

So far, the only meteors I've seen tonight aren't where they're supposed to be...they're south east of my position (though one page I read said they can show up pretty much anywhere).

* You can find the variation for your area by checking the aviation chart for your area on the following web site:

http://skyvector.com/

Enter your closest airport and hit "Go", then zoom the map out until you see a dashed magenta line (not a magenta circle or other shape...a dash line). Along those lines you'll see something like, "14 30E"...that means the local variation is 14 degrees, 30 minutes (or 14.5 degrees which I rounded to "roughly 15 degrees" for my local area).

Thwack · August 11, 2007

The Seattle/Vancouver area has an 18 degree easterly variation between true and magnetic north while the Montreal area has an 18 degree westerly variation. That's 36 degrees difference from one coast to the other (not to mention local variations that can be much larger). So, looking a few degrees off from mag north might get you pointed in the right general direction but it leaves a far amount of error in its wake...

I was downloading more sample shots from my camera while I was digging up the info above...time to go back outside and see if I can find more meteors. So far, I've seen several but the only fast moving light source I've caught with the camera has been yet more planes.

ivar · August 11, 2007

There is actually a place somewhere with a lot of iron or something similar in the ground. Local variation is 136° if I remember correctly

It is really weird to see on aviation charts (they show lines of variation).

z_28 · August 11, 2007

Leave compass at home, check position by North Star

If North Star isn't visible - meteor's shower will be not visible too.

Anyway don't wait for one special hour of shower's peak !!!
They are falling down for few weeks - day and night.
And next shower is just around the corner.

gus · August 11, 2007

z_28 wrote:

Are you really so young ???
Meteor showers are few times every year, they are cyclic events.

I know people in their 40's & 50's whom have never seen one.

gus · August 11, 2007

ivar wrote:

There is actually a place somewhere with a lot of iron or something similar in the ground. Local variation is 136° if I remember correctly

3/4 's of australia.

z_28 · August 11, 2007

gus wrote:

I know people in their 40's & 50's whom have never seen one.

I know them too !
World is so small

thebigsky · August 11, 2007

I regularly drag my wife out on these occasions with promises of spectacular celestial displays, does she ever look in the right direction at the right time, no, does she think I'm making it up when I say I saw some, yes, does she get fed up and go to bed 3 minutes before a really good shower, always, arrgghhh.

Glad to know some fellow Dgrinners will be out there, I'm with you in spirit if not body.

Charlie

tonyd · August 12, 2007

gus wrote:

I know people in their 40's & 50's whom have never seen one.

You must be talking about me

David_S85 · August 13, 2007

I'm in my 40's or my 50's and have rarely seen these. Tonight, 30th straight year in a row - cloud cover over the Chicago area. :cry

Last good sighting I've had was when I was in my early 20's or 30's.

gus · August 13, 2007

David_S85 wrote:

I'm in my 40's or my 50's and have rarely seen these. Tonight, 30th straight year in a row - cloud cover over the Chicago area. :cry

Last good sighting I've had was when I was in my early 20's or 30's.

Move to the cook islands or somethin' man for gods sake !! You'll have a roof & food. You'll be in a nursing before you can blink & then you can only think about what you would have like to have seen.

You can get a job with the villagers fishing in the morning & on the way home ...swap some fish for pork. You'll never wear shoes or see clouds again.

z_28 · August 13, 2007

Sort of Chicago problems here too !
Big city lights and near year round hot and wet haze in the air
prevent us from celestial wonders :cry

I got a shower hidden in the bathroom, at least something

David_S85 · August 13, 2007

I have a good mind to just stay in Montana once I get there, some 30'ish days from now.

claudermilk · August 13, 2007

Just have to join in here. I spent the weekend up at Lake Arrowhead, so this was my first opportunity to actually go watch one--I rarely find out beforehand & there's way too much light pollution where I usually am if not a solid amrine layer. Very cool. We spotted three really good ones and a bunch of those little corner-of-the-eye did-I-really-see-it ones. It's kind of like a drug, you see one & want another hit. :eat No camera this time as I realized there was no way I'd be able to capture it this time, so just laid down & enjoyed the show.

kdog · August 13, 2007

Ok, here's my best attempt of the night. 100% crop.

I posted a few other shots in the "Other Cool Shots" forum, here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=68677

Meteor shower Aug. 12

Comments