shooting for the stars

[jhacker]

I stayed up all night last night and shot 293 frames from my istDL, mostly 30 second exposures at iso 800 trying to catch meteors from the peak of the Persieds meteor shower. Out of all those frames, I got meteors in three. I got my first at 11:45 p.m. Sunday, and didn't get my next until 4:15 a.m. Monday. I got the third at 5:15 a.m. as the sun was coming up. No. 2 is dim enough it's tough to see, but I'm posting the other two here. The "w" shaped grouping of stars just to the right of the second one is the constellation Cassiopeia. The first one has Orion, the Pleadies star cluster and Mars in it. That streak coming in from the top left is the meteor. It actually traveled a huge distance across the sky and died just after it entered the frame.

[jhacker]

Note Cassiopeia

[robar]

GREAT shots!!!!!!!
you got capella and procyon as well. these need to be on the wall..
REALLY,, thanks for sharing these and maybe it'll get me off my a$$ next time.

roy

[robar]

oops, forgot to mention alderbaron as well

roy

[NonEntity1]

Great shots, I would call you lucky but I believe luck is when preparation meets opporutunity. I don't have a single shooting star under my belt thus far, now you have inspired me to try for one.

Tim

[Trojansoc]

Congratulations, jhacker. The shots are terrific, and you have no idea how glad my wife was to hear how hard you had to work for those three.

Last night, I had gone to sleep early and she woke me up at 10:30 because she had decided she wanted to take pictures of the meteor shower.I set up the tripod withmy K10 with a 50mm f 2.0. I guessed at a 15 sec exposure at ISO 1250. Then, I went back to bed. She got back up at 1:00 and couldn't believe she didn't geta meteorin a dozen or so shots over a two hour period. Today, she couldn't believe she didn't get one and was really frustrated. (She did get some nice star field shots.) I tried to explain to her just how hard celestial photography is. Your tale convinced her that maybe she didn't do anything wrong, and that it really is difficult to get such an outstanding shot. Now, she's ready to try again.

Nice work.

[jhacker]

Thanks everyone. It is a ton of work. I think I saw 10 or 11 meteors run through the lens that weren't bright enough for the sensor to pick up at iso 800. There are so many variables, like I said, meteors are tougher than almost anything else I shoot, and that includes lightning, comets and other things. I think I've caught meteors now about 12 times in nine years. The 1998 November Leonids was my best show, I think I got five that night. There were a bunch of big fireballs that night. Here is the third meteor shot I got last night. Cassiopeia is involved again, if you look at the top of the frame, you will see the "W" of that constellation. There is what looks like a scratch running between the far left stars of Cassiopeia. That meteor was bright when I saw it, but it was barely bright enough to get caught by the camera. I could have turned the camera up to iso 1600 or 3200, but I decided noise would have been a huge problem. Take care

[mtngal]

Really awesome pictures! I saw a meteor this morning as we left for work at 4:15 this morning and wondered if anyone had taken pictures. I can certainly believe how hard it is to get them- a combination of luck and good skills. Thanks for posting them (maybe I'll try star tracks sometime).

[bilybianca]

This was really something different and special! #1 even has a beautiful composition, and you really had to work to earn it. Thanks for posting and for telling how you did it.

Kjell

[Lyrics51]

Those are worth the wait. Great shots!

Glenn