Perseids 2008... - DPChallenge Forums

08/11/2008 02:05:21 PM · #1

Get your tripods out, it's that time of year again... the Perseids meteor shower peaks tonight. Peak time is predicted to be at 4am Pacific time, good news for us on the US West-Coast. Don't head out too early though, there will be a waxing gibbous Moon until about 2am which will probably hinder viewing of all but the brightest meteors, so it's better to wait until after the moon sets.

Here's one of my feeble attempts from last year, hopefully this year will be better.

08/11/2008 02:30:49 PM · #2

Originally posted by Telehubbie:

Get your tripods out, it's that time of year again... the Perseids meteor shower peaks tonight.

Yikes! Thanks for the reminder -- time flies! I would have completely missed it if not for this post.

Originally posted by Telehubbie:

Very nice! What was your exposure? I've never had any luck with meteors. Have you found any good/useful info online on how to capture them?

Were you on a tracking mount or fixed?

Message edited by author 2008-08-11 14:31:18.

08/11/2008 02:58:28 PM · #3

Thanks! I forget what aperture I was at, I'll have to check the old file later at home. I was just tripod mounted (fixed) with remote timer set at intervals for 30 seconds (I think).

icu1965

Sony DSLR-A200

Sony 75-300 mm f/4.5-5.6

08/11/2008 03:00:41 PM · #4

Thanks for the reminder. For some reason I thought it was supposed to be Thursday morning.

Olympus 7-14mm f/4.0 Zuiko Digital Zoom

08/12/2008 07:59:39 AM · #5

Anyone have any luck so far? Here in beautiful, sunny Arizona, where the skies are always clear and the temperatures are always... uncomfortable... I'm at 92 degrees and a beautiful horizon-to-horizon view of.... CLOUDS. *hangs head*

one2one

Olympus E-5

08/12/2008 08:31:43 AM · #6

Too many clouds here last night, again.

08/12/2008 08:36:12 AM · #7

Sorry to hear about the clouds out there, Arizona night skies are beautiful (if there's no clouds). I went up into the mountains before work this morning, and got a couple meteors but wont be able to post them until I get home later tonight. I set up the camera/tripod and started focus test shots, and about 2 seconds into my very first click a bright one went right under Andromeda! Looks nice on the camera's lcd, but I'll have to wait until I get it on the computer to see how just how sharp it is, might be a little off since it was a test shot. Looking through about 60 shots on the camera's lcd, I see one other smaller one. I got excited on a couple shots, big bright trails going all the way through the shot, but with flashes at regular intervals... yup, airplanes. There was one HUGE fireball that went overhead and behind me that left a trail for a couple seconds afterwards, but it was just out of camera view, dangit! -like any fishing story... it's "the one that got away."

Anybody else get any shots?

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

08/12/2008 06:11:19 PM · #8

Here's one, looked better in person though, I swear.

strangeghost

Canon EOS-7D

08/12/2008 06:29:39 PM · #9

Went out Sunday night. Saw a few good ones. Set up camera to take 30 second pics for 45 minutes. Got nada.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

08/12/2008 08:05:46 PM · #10

Originally posted by Telehubbie:

Here's one, looked better in person though, I swear.

I think that's GREAT! I love the trees and hill on the horizon. I see M45 (Pleades) and Taurus there, too! ;)

I can make out Perseus, I think, but it's hard to pick out the low-magnitude stars in such a dense field! Is the meteor going through Andromeda, would you say? It's hard to make it out with so many "stars you don't usually see" -- that's the only thing that always bugs me about looking at wide-field astro photos. :P

I'm going to give it a shot tonight again. I have a beautiful view of the Superstition Mountains right in my back yard (and I'm out in the boonies with no street lights, etc), and I think it would make a cool horizon for a meteor shot... We'll see what happens!

strangeghost

Canon EOS-7D

08/12/2008 08:29:51 PM · #11

No perseids to show, but here's a shot I took for the fun of it. For the uninitated, the red lights are what amateur astronomers use to have light but not destroy night adapted vision.

Sugarpie

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM

08/12/2008 08:40:49 PM · #12

i wish id seen this thread earlier

i missed the showwer right?

Jammur

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/12/2008 08:50:17 PM · #13

Originally posted by Sugarpie:

i wish id seen this thread earlier

i missed the showwer right?

Not the whole thing, just the peak night

Sugarpie

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM

08/12/2008 08:52:38 PM · #14

So there will be more tonight? Possibly? enough for me to get up at 4am and go out in the backyard with my jammies and camera?

strangeghost

Canon EOS-7D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

08/12/2008 08:53:45 PM · #15

Originally posted by Sugarpie:

So there will be more tonight? Possibly? enough for me to get up at 4am and go out in the backyard with my jammies and camera?

There will be more tonight. For best results, go out after the moon sets, which, unfortunately, means late, late late. Might be better to get some sleep and get up around 2 am and go out.

08/12/2008 08:55:35 PM · #16

Awesome picture, strangeghost! Makes me want to get involved with a club again, so I can have more than one red light moving around. ;)

Originally posted by Sugarpie:

i wish id seen this thread earlier
i missed the showwer right?

Nope. You may have missed the theoretical peak, but the shower itself lasts several days. Best viewing is at and on either side (before or after) the peak, so there are still several days to catch it. For this shower, specifically, the date range is July 17 - August 24, theoretical peak on Aug 12.

There is also time-zone math to consider based on where you are, and truly, theoretical peaks are just that -- theory. There are several good days of observing the larger showers like this one. So, no matter where you live, you have several more good nights of observing.

Lots of details here, here, here, here... I'll stop now. ;)

I will point out -- your best observing will be after "local, non-daylight-savings" midnight up until sunrise, since you'll closest to the surface of the earth which is essentially "running into" the debris field which causes the shower. More discussion/explanation here. So, if you want to really increase you chances of a good show, plan to "get up" or "stay up" late...or early, depending on how you look at it. ;)

08/12/2008 11:36:24 PM · #17

Originally posted by cdrice:

I can make out Perseus, I think, but it's hard to pick out the low-magnitude stars in such a dense field! Is the meteor going through Andromeda, would you say? It's hard to make it out with so many "stars you don't usually see" -- that's the only thing that always bugs me about looking at wide-field astro photos. :P

Ya, part of that is the USM after resizing, I think I need to back off a bit to make it more realistic.

That sounds like a gorgeous setting in your backyard! You should try some shots while the moon is still out to get the detail in the mountains, then leave your tripod in the same exact spot (taking the camera off), then come back later after the moon sets to get the dark sky/meteor shots, then cut and paste the dark sky onto the detailed mountain shots. Might be kind of neat.