The Taurids Are Here

OK, I know most of you are asking, what the heck is a Taurid. The Taurids are a lesser know meteor shower, that occur right before the Leonids. They seem to originate from the constellation Taurus the Bull, which is near the Plieades.

From Spaceweather.com:

"TAURID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of debris from periodic Comet 2P/Encke, and this is causing the annual Taurid meteor shower. The shower has a broad maximum lasting from Nov. 5th through 12th. At most, only about 5 Taurids per hour streak across the sky, but what they lack in number they make up for in dazzle. Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, very bright and slow. Look for them falling out of the constellation Taurus during the hours around midnight."

Thanks for letting us know

Have you ever been able to capture such an event with a camera ?

With clear weather, should this be visible from northeastern Oklahoma?

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Originally Posted by armando_m

Thanks for letting us know

Have you ever been able to capture such an event with a camera ?

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Yes, I have captured quite a few meteors over the years. I posted information on how I set up in my post about the Leonids.

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Originally Posted by Shebang

With clear weather, should this be visible from northeastern Oklahoma?

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Yes, it will be visible throughout North America. The major obstacle will be the moon washing out the dimmer meteors. The later it gets in the month, the smaller (and less bright) the moon will be. As an added bonus, Taurids are usually bright meteors, so you'll know one when you see it.

Here is a link to various types of astrophotography:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/astrophotography

It strikes me as curious that they do not include one for photographing meteors.
While I don't claim to be an expert, I will tell you how I shoot meteor showers.
Obviously you need a camera, a tripod, and a way of taking long exposures. You definitely want to be in manual mode.

For lenses, the wider the better - to a point. I prefer a 50mm or wider lens (that's with a flim camera or a full frame digital sensor). A 28mm - or it's digital equivalent - is about as wide as I like to go. If you get too wide, the meteor trails are too small. But if you have a fisheye and are dying to try it, then go for it.

I shoot with ISO 400 speed film or I select ISO 400 on my digital camera. A faster film or ISO setting will show more stars and more meteors, but even a fairly dim meteor, magnitude 3 or 4, will show up nicely at ISO 400.

I shoot with a wide apeture. I like f2.8 or faster. The wider the apeture, the more meteors you will capture. I know you don't get the shapest image with a lens wide open, but we are talking about stars and meteors here. As long as your focus is good, you will get nice photos.

Speaking of focus, I select my lens, then focus on something bright (Jupiter is the bright "star" in the south and it works well) and then I set my focus on manual. That way the camera doesn't hunt for focus.

Exposure time depends on how wide your lens is and how much "trailing", ie, streaking, you want from your stars. With a 50mm lens on a film camera, 30 seconds is about all I want. The wider you go, the less trailing you will have for any given time. Experiment and see what you like.

My setup these days consists of my D200 and my D300. I use lenses set at 28mm (42mm film equivalent), ISO 400, f2.8, 30 second exposures. With my cameras, I can set the interval timers at one minute, fire the first one, and when the shutter closes on it, I fire the second one. That way I always have one camera recording.

The interval timer has the added benefit in that I can fire my cameras, then sit in the hot tub with my wife and watch the show while my cameras take the pictures. I find that a fully charged battery will last 90 minutes or so on interval timer.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I will share what I know.

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Originally Posted by Speed

The interval timer has the added benefit in that I can fire my cameras, then sit in the hot tub with my wife and watch the show while my cameras take the pictures.

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Speed - You must be living your life right and obviously have your priorities aligned as well!! That is definitely the way I would prefer to take pictures of meteors!!
:cornut: :D :thumbsup: :p

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Originally Posted by CLKunst

Speed - You must be living your life right and obviously have your priorities aligned as well!! That is definitely the way I would prefer to take pictures of meteors!!
:cornut: :D :thumbsup: :p

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I am a blessed man!

The wife and I have seen several Taurids so far. They are very bright meteors and absolutely gorgeous.
In three nights of shooting with two cameras, I have taken over 400 images and have yet to capture a single meteor from this shower!!!
But I'll keep trying, and if I get any I will post them.