Perseid Meteor Shower
As usual for this summer, it rained part of the day yesterday and was dark and dreary for much of the afternoon. For brief periods, however, the sky did clear up nicely. I was keeping a close eye on the weather and the sky yesterday because I was hoping that the night would be clear so I could get outside to watch and image the Perseid Meteor Shower.
August 11th and 12th were supposed to be the peak of the meteor shower but it rained quite a bit on those days. We've seen very little night sky this summer and the 11th and 12th were no different. I got a little lucky last night, however, so I was able to get some shots between fast moving clouds.
Once we got dinner out of the way... we had some delicious pork street tacos which consisted of a liberally seasoned pork loin that was slow-cooked on the grill until it was mouth-wateringly tender and then glazed with a homemade sweet and salty sauce, sauteed onions, and chopped grilled pineapple with a homemade spicy Mexican white sauce wrapped in a large tortilla. Just writing about these tacos is making my mouth water again! Anyway, once we got dinner out of the way, I kept checking the sky conditions every 10-15 minutes.
At 8:45pm, I stepped out onto the deck, looked up, and was shocked to see bright stars and the Milky Way brightly shining through breaks in the clouds. It wasn't completely clear but I would be able to work with this sky. Unfortunately, due to the clouds passing through from the west, I would need to keep changing my viewing angle to capture photos in these breaks in the clouds. The sky was full of stars and the Milky Way was very visible on this night which is always great to see!
I had originally intended to use a 14mm ultra-wide angle lens. This would give me a very wide panoramic view of the sky but, since much of the sky was cloudy and I was trying to shoot in the breaks in these clouds, I swapped the lens for a 24mm wide angle lens which would give me a slightly narrower view. There was no sense capturing mostly clouds in an ultra-wide view. I didn't mind some clouds in the photos but I wanted most of the photo to be sky and stars... and, hopefully, meteors.
Capturing meteor showers is a bit of a chance endeavor. You don't wait to see a meteor burning up in the atmosphere and then point the camera that way and shoot. Instead, you choose a part of the sky, take a seat, be patient, and shoot long exposure after long exposure hoping that you might capture a meteorite streaking across the sky in one or more of those long exposures.
Actually, if the sky remained clear, I could have kept the camera in one location all night long and then overlaid each of the images with meteors on top of each other so the resulting image would have all the meteors over the course of hours. Since we had clouds rolling across the sky from the west, I had to keep moving and changing the direction I was shooting so I couldn't create a time-lapse stacked image. That will have to wait for better weather.
It was pretty comfortable outside last night so I just sat on my stool watching the sky while the camera shot its 15-20 second exposure. Then I would check the LCD screen, make some small adjustments to settings, adjust the direction I was shooting to avoid the fast moving clouds, and/or adjust the focus and then shoot another exposure while I watched the sky.
For each of these photos, I kept the shutter open for 15-20 seconds. The camera was on a tripod and I used a wireless remote trigger for the shutter. I manually focused and had all settings set to manual so I could control them myself. I noticed a moderate amount of dew on my stool so I was hoping it wouldn't reach my camera and lens. The camera was up a couple of feet higher than the stool so, fortunately, I never accumulated any dew on my camera nor lens. That would have ruined any chances of capturing crisp photos.
I shot about 62 long exposures while I was out there last night. Between changing settings between shots, moving to different parts of the yard to avoid clouds, and shooting each of these 62 long exposure images, I was out there about three hours. Time passes much too quickly when you are trying to squeeze in as many long exposure images as possible but each image requires a couple of minutes which makes it a bit tough to be patient. Plus, I knew solid overcast skies and rain was headed our way so I needed to keep shooting for as long as possible and as quickly as possible answer yet remain patient and methodical.
By 11:30pm or midnight, the sky was completely overcast so that is when I called it a night and came indoors. Besides, I was starting to smell skunk and I didn't want to get sprayed by accidently startling a skunk! I also know that foxes and bears have been in the neighborhood every night lately so I was also listening very carefully and keeping an eye behind me as I watched the skies. Bobcats can be a bit of a concern too. The clouds came at a good time so I brought everything back indoors and locked up the house.
In this photo below, I captured two meteorites burning up in our atmosphere in front of the Milky Way which was prominently stretching across the sky. At the bottom of the frame we have trees and, at the top, we can see the blurred movement of clouds making their way across the sky...
We have trees on the entire left side of the frame, below, as well as on the bottom right of the frame. At the top right of the frame, we have some clouds. The blue in the streak is very obvious in this photo...
It was really nice to get outside last night with a camera again. I wish we had better weather so I could do more astronomy-related activities. Fortunately, I have a lot of hobbies and interests so, if I can't head outside due to the weather, I have plenty of other things to do indoors.
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POST EDIT: I just finished up those pork street tacos that I mentioned in this blog entry for lunch. Wow... those tacos are delicious! I think it was a 2.25 lb pork loin and we got about 13 tacos out of it over the course of three days. This pork loin was quite a bit larger than the usual 1.5 lb ones so we got more out of it... it also required far more cooking time. That is one meal I really enjoy!
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POST EDIT - 17 August 2023: Very oddly, there has been little to no interest in this blog entry and these photos of the meteor shower. I really have no idea why but all I can say is, "oh well."
Last night, I went back to look at the folder containing all the photos that I shot that night a week ago to see if maybe I missed a good photo. It turns out that I didn't miss any good images of the sky showing meteors or even nice looking simple star fields but I did like one of my test shots of the night so I decided to add it here.
I went outside at around 8pm to set up the camera on my tripod. After setting up, I shot a few test shots to get a feel for what camera settings I would need. The sky was still light when I shot the photo below. Since the sky was still blue, it is easier to see just how quickly the clouds were moving that night. This is a 20 second exposure at f5.6 and ISO100 using my Rokinon 24mm prime lens. That is a good amount of movement in just 20 seconds!
There are a number of stars already visible in the sky in this photo but the very prominent star on the right side of the frame about midway from top and bottom is Arturus.
Because these clouds were moving so quickly from the west, I had to keep moving around the backyard and front yard to capture mostly stars rather than mostly clouds. I was also trying to avoid having trees blocking the middle of the frame as well as avoiding utility poles and wires.
Anyway, I'm happy to have captured the four images at the top of the page.
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