Last night's Geminids shower!

NewCreation517 · December 14, 2007

Last night was the superb "end of 2007" Geminids meteor shower. Talk about a laborious process, trying to capture even one picture of a shooting star! Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but here are the three results from over 500 exposures last night.

Anyone else capture something better? Perhaps there is a more fruitful technique? These 20D shots are all 30 second exposures at f/4 with the ISO at 800 (sorry the exif got ripped away when I added the red boxes. Thank you Corel Photo-Paint!).

And just for kicks, here is a stack of all my shots over a two-hour time period. Fun enough look at the star trails

jkcashin · December 14, 2007

I am assuming the streak in shot #3 is a plane? All in all, I think these are pretty cool, but I am a sucker for astronomical shots anyway.

Jamie

gus · December 14, 2007

NewCreation517 wrote:

Anyone else capture something better?

Apparently they were going to be rather spectacular here in the southern hemisphere this morning ..around 3-4 am. I got out of bed at 4 but the sun was already starting to show some light so i missed out.

Nice photos BTW.

Skippy · December 14, 2007

NewCreation517 wrote:

Last night was the superb "end of 2007" Geminids meteor shower.
Talk about a laborious process, trying to capture even one picture of a shooting star! Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but here are the three results from over 500 exposures last night.

Anyone else capture something better? Perhaps there is a more fruitful technique? These 20D shots are all 30 second exposures at f/4 with the ISO at 800 (sorry the exif got ripped away when I added the red boxes. Thank you Corel Photo-Paint!).

And just for kicks, here is a stack of all my shots over a two-hour time period. Fun enough look at the star trails

I've never tried to do star trails myself your last shot looks great.
I find it interesting that the passing object (plane?) has both white and red lights, but the red light line is almost totally complete without a break in it, yet the white light has a break in it ?

Was this one object that went by or two? as they are parallel with each other.

Thanks for sharing

.... Skippy

.

leaforte · December 14, 2007

I like the star trails. Hopefully you didn't spend every minute trying to work the shots, and miss the show.

I lived a spell at a Washington ski resort (HYAK) and I recall evey November, a bunch of flatlanders, from Seattle, would fill up our parking lot with lawn chairs, sleeping bags, and tents, to watch the Leonod showers. It was an annual event for a lot of them. I'm not sure which I liked watching more from my balcony--the meteor shower, or the people in the muddy parking lot, whoopin' it up!

I've never tried any sky shots, but it's got to be tough.

Thanks for sharing.

NewCreation517 · December 15, 2007

Skippy wrote:

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I've never tried to do star trails myself your last shot looks great.
I find it interesting that the passing object (plane?) has both white and red lights, but the red light line is almost totally complete without a break in it, yet the white light has a break in it ?

Was this one object that went by or two? as they are parallel with each other.

Thanks for sharing .... Skippy
.

I wondered the same thing after looking at the shots! I'm pretty sure they are both planes, but one was probably commercial while the other may have been military. I'm not sure where the break fits in, the only thing I can think of is that in between shots, the camera take a second or two to reopen the shutter. Perhaps that is where that gap comes from, especially if that plane was moving pretty fast.

They are definitely two different object though. I love right in between Point Mugu and LAX, so the planes were heading to/leaving one of those airports.

leaforte · December 15, 2007

You said-- "I love right in between...."

PS: I Know

NewCreation517 · December 15, 2007

leaforte wrote:

You said-- "I love right in between...."

PS: I Know

hahah, oh that's rather funny ... geez.

Here's another one, hot off the press ... image stack of 157 30 second exposures.

leaforte · December 15, 2007

That is a cool shot.

gluwater · December 15, 2007

I bet Adrienne knows how to shoot the meteors. You could try sending her a PM. Good try though. I thought about attempting it but I was watching them at the lake front with Chicago behind me. I could see the meteors but the light pollution would have killed any attempts at photography.

[Deleted User] · December 16, 2007

This was on the BBC news site, I think this is what NC517 was after

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7140000/newsid_7145700?redirect=7145711.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&asb=1

To only get 3 from 500, you must have the patience of a saint

Tim

P.S. there no sound to the video

OsirisPhoto · December 16, 2007

draggin wrote:

This was on the BBC news site, I think this is what NC517 was after

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7140000/newsid_7145700?redirect=7145711.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&asb=1

To only get 3 from 500, you must have the patience of a saint

Tim

P.S. there no sound to the video

Wow, that was a big one!

NC517.. nice star trails

Hoping to spend a few days in one of Scotland's few remaining dark sky areas soon.. will take the tripod!

Last night's Geminids shower!

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