Persied's Peak

On the night of August 11th - morning of August 12th, the Persied meteor shower should hit it's peak. And this year is predicted to be a banner year.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...rseids2009.htm

We watch these from the beach in Michigan. Don't usually make it to peak before falling asleep though.

I'm going to attempt to take some long sky exposures and see if I get anything. The lighthouse at Leelanau may overpower things though.

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Originally Posted by CaraRose

We watch these from the beach in Michigan. Don't usually make it to peak before falling asleep though.

I'm going to attempt to take some long sky exposures and see if I get anything. The lighthouse at Leelanau may overpower things though.

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FWIW, I shoot meteor showers with a 30 second exposure, a wide angle (50mm or less) and ISO 400. I've caught a few over the years, both on film and digital capture.

Good luck!

The Perseid meteor rate (the number per hour) is up from 10 per hour to 20 per hour.

Now that the moon is past full, it will be easier on each succedding night to get photo's of them.

From SpaceWeather.com:

INTENSIFYING PERSEIDS: The Perseid meteor rate is increasing as Earth plunges deeper into the debris stream of Comet Swift-Tuttle. International Meteor Organization observers are now counting 20 per hour: data. Forecasters say the rate could increase another tenfold to 200 per hour on peak night, Aug. 11th and 12th. Observing tips may be found in the Science@NASA story "The Perseids are Coming."

I saw my first one yesterday morning at sunrise. I was looking due south and it streamed right in front of me. It was about 5:45 am, and the sky was already pretty bright, but the meteorite was just awesomely bright. I probably could have seen it at high noon. It's the first one I've ever seen except in the dark.
Sometimes I really hate working nights!!!!!! And for the next week we have lots of clouds, rain and thunderstorms in the forecast! yech

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Originally Posted by ken1953

I saw my first one yesterday morning at sunrise. I was looking due south and it streamed right in front of me. It was about 5:45 am, and the sky was already pretty bright, but the meteorite was just awesomely bright. I probably could have seen it at high noon. It's the first one I've ever seen except in the dark.
Sometimes I really hate working nights!!!!!! And for the next week we have lots of clouds, rain and thunderstorms in the forecast! yech

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I can relate about the weather. I have missed several astronomy related events due to weather. Even now, the sky is "clear" at night, but it is humid and hazy and it definitely detracts from my viewing. We are suppose to have clear skies tonight and tomorrow night, then it goes to crap for me again...

On Twitter, search for #Meterowatch
Our local Astronomy Soceity @NewburyAS is a major player.

Only saw one definite meteor.
Others could be iridium flares as they were low to horizon, travelling E-W through great bear, and constant brightness with sharp on/off.
Not one meteor photo :(

It has been clear for a week. Hazy some nights, but you could see the stars. Sunday night I saw a Persied going through the Little Dipper.

Monday was clear and hazy. I set up both cameras (D200 & D300) on tripods, set the interval timers to 1 minute, and have myself a practice run. The cameras were taking pictures of the sky while the wife and I sat in the hot tub watching the stars. Everything went great. I was really stoked about Tuesday night.

So Tuesday I get up with a couple of friends, they come over to the house and we're going to have a meteor watching party. Everyone brought their swimsuits and cameras, and we're going to sit in the hot tub and watch the meteor shower, and take some pictures. Right!

Except, around 5:00 pm yesterday, it started clouding up. And became a solid overcast. It looked like it might break up around 9:30, and we saw a few stars, but it clouded back up and stayed that way until we called it a night (around 11:00).

I have lost track of how many meteor showers, lunar eclipses and other astronomy events I've missed due to the weather. It's times like this that I miss Arizona! I'm going to try again tonight - IF the weather clears...

So did anyone capture any Persieds?

I gave it a go last night, but haven't downloaded my images yet. I saw a few streaks go through the sky, but not a lot. Will post images later if I find that I captured anything.

Here is a star trails image that I built using 25 - 30second exposures from last night. I don't see anything other than stars, but you can take a look yourself. You can zoom in on the image to take a closer look.

http://www.magiclightphotography.com/startrails.html

Well, I saw three good ones last night. I did try to do some long exposure, but don't think I captured anything. I'll get a closer look tonight after I download them. I know for a fact that 2 seconds after the shutter closed on one of the shots I missed one nice one...oh well...the life of a photog.
Like Michael...I'll post if I find anything!!!

We had terrible thunderstorms roll through. I figured the night would be a wash. But around 8:00pm, the sky started to clear. So we went home and set up the cameras. I set my interval timers for 1 minute, fired the D300, and when the shutter closed I fired off the D200. It was so cool sitting in the hot tub listening to my Nikons playing dueling cameras as it were.

By the time the battery in the D200 died, it had taken 90 exposures. The lens on the D300 fogged up, so I turned it off, cleared it, then turned it back on. I ended the night with 82 exposures on the D300. I haven't had a chance to go through them yet, but I will tonight.

While I don't know how many, if any meteors I captured, we saw several. The first one we saw (while setting up the cameras) was incredibly bright (-4 or -5 magnitude) and came out of the sky near the Little Dipper. It streaked across the sky fairly slowly for a Persied, and it covered about 45 - 50 degrees of the sky. It was incredible. We saw several more bright ones, and I hope I captured a few of them.

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Originally Posted by SmartWombat

Only saw one definite meteor.
Others could be iridium flares as they were low to horizon, travelling E-W through great bear, and constant brightness with sharp on/off.
Not one meteor photo :(

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I really like that first shot, with the camera pointed up at the sky!

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

Here is a star trails image that I built using 25 - 30second exposures from last night. I don't see anything other than stars, but you can take a look yourself. You can zoom in on the image to take a closer look.

http://www.magiclightphotography.com/startrails.html

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Hey Mike,

I zoomed in on your image and panned around it, but I didn't see any meteor trails.

What lens were you using? Those are fairly long star trails for a 30 second exposure.

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Originally Posted by ken1953

Well, I saw three good ones last night. I did try to do some long exposure, but don't think I captured anything. I'll get a closer look tonight after I download them. I know for a fact that 2 seconds after the shutter closed on one of the shots I missed one nice one...oh well...the life of a photog.
Like Michael...I'll post if I find anything!!!

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Hello Ken,

I took 178 photo's last night. We had clouds blowing through, so some are going to be a wash. We saw several bright meteors, so I'm hoping I caught a few. I'm going to check my images tonight and see. Like you, if I caught any, I'll post them.

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Originally Posted by Speed

Hey Mike,

I zoomed in on your image and panned around it, but I didn't see any meteor trails.

What lens were you using? Those are fairly long star trails for a 30 second exposure.

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I was using my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I don't remember the focal length but I'm guessing it was around 50mm or so.

The exposures were 30 seconds each, but they are all stacked on top of each other so the trails you see in the image are equal to a 12.5 minute exposure.

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

I was using my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I don't remember the focal length but I'm guessing it was around 50mm or so.

The exposures were 30 seconds each, but they are all stacked on top of each other so the trails you see in the image are equal to a 12.5 minute exposure.

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Ahhh, now it makes sense!

Thanks for clearing that up.

Monday I set up both cameras as a practice run for the Perseid's Peak on Tuesday. Tuesday we had a solid overcast and rain.
Wednesday we had broken clouds, and saw a half dozen or so Perseids, along with a few transient meteors as well. The Perseids we saw were nice and bright.

Monday I took 108 photo's, and captured one Perseid.
Wednesday I took 172 photos and captured none!
280 photo's in two nights and I got one meteor.
Go figure.

Here is the one I captued on Monday. It is faint, in the lower left of the frame. I'll try to boost it in Photoshop and repost it at 800 pixels instead of 640.

We saw some incredibly big ones where we were in Michigan. The night after peak night was better than peak though.

The moon was ridiculously bright once it rose though. It washed out a lot of the stars.

I think I might have caught one. I did get some nice star trails though.

The first shot I think I caught a meteor. The rest are just star trails.

Congrats everyone on capturing your meteors, whether they were Perseids or not. I didn't get lucky and have really nothing to post but am in awe of all the ones posted here. Also, great star trails. Night photography is fun. Maybe I should go back to being disabled so I can have more time for my photography...hahaha

Hey CaraRose,

It looks like you caught a satelite passing overhead. Meteors tend to stay the same brightness as they burn, unless they blow up (called a bolide) in which case they are brighter at the end. You have a faint trail, then it brightens, then it's a faint trail again. This is characteristic of a satelite. The brightening is from the solar panels (usually) or the side of the satelite reflecting the sun. Iridium satelites in particular are known for their brightening, and is referred to as an "Iridium flare".

I have captured quite a few satelites, meteors and aircraft while doing astrophotography. During one exposure during a meteor shower, I captured two satelites passing through the frame. I never saw them, but they were on the negative.

You captured some very nice star trails. A dark site will amaze you with what you can capture with your camera. Great job, and thanks for posting these.