Photographing Meteors

No don't laugh...
Lets just keep thinking positively here people.

I was chatting with Dave L this evening about camera settings for photographing meteors
and I just wanted to throw it out there to you lot what you reckon the camera settings should be.

I guess it depends on what kind of image you want to get.

So there are a few ways to tackle this.
The most popular is the 'Fishing' method -
Set up your camera (wide FOV lens) open the aperture and set the ISO high,
release the shutter and then sit back and wait for the fishies.. .I mean...meteors to happen by.

It's an OK method I guess but lets face it, the finished image isn't that nice to look at.
Basically a star trail shot with a colorful line across it.

I'm a sucker for having some kind of foreground in my shots.
(a lot harder when your shooting the planets but thats a different story altogether..)
I just think a well placed foreground sets the scene for a good finished shot for a few reasons.

Firstly, it gives you a perspective.
I've seen a quintillion..... (yeah..it's a word.....) shots that show
various astronomical oddities but it's hard to grasp the size or even beauty
unless you have some frame of refrence in the picture.
(OK I know A LOT of these are scientific by nature and having that
cutsie tree or hill in the shot is pointless)
I'm talking purely asthetics here people....
A beauty shot with a science twist if you will.

(Check out the work by Miloslav Druckmuller - this guy knows how to frame a shot!!)
www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/Astro/Mcnaugh/3772-84/0-info.htm


The other method and one I find myself leaning twords trying,
is to just set up the camera to shoot for 20 -25 seconds,
ISO 1600 and full aperture.
I don't have a wide FOV lens so it's just the standard 18-55mm Canon
one I'll be using.
(seriously, I WILL be using it, the weather is totally gonna break!)
So to try and catch a meteor, you shoot 3 - 4 shots every minute.....for a couple of hours.
What you should hopefully have then is a bunch of shots with meteors on.
Then take a master backround shot and overlay all the shots that have meteors in them.
Merge them together and you should have a shot that shows the trails leading back to the radiant.

Question is though..
With the camera lens open for just 20 sec...
What kind of settings should you use for an 18 - 55mm to catch
a reasonably bright meteor?

A lot to do with local conditions of course.
Daves advice which is great is to set up, and then take a shot for just one second.
The faintest stars that then show up on film are the limiting mag of the meteors you
will capture during the 25 sec exposure because the meteor will only last (inc any trail ) for just a second or so.

Have any of you lot done anything like this before?
Any advice?

I hope to be in the same position - taking astrophotos. I am now part of the Canon Digital Astrophotographers club, thanks to Dee who bought me a Canon 350D as a wedding gift (she's a keeper alright - Dee, AND the camera! ).

Dave Lillis, I am now hoping I can get to use the manual exposure cable I bought from you almost 2 years ago!

I usually just go 'fishing' when there is a shower but always seem to have the camera pointed in the wrong direction when the bright ones pop up. This time I am going to stick the camera on the mount and hope for the best. I wish I had ISO3200 like Miloslav Druckmuller's 5D (£1550)

I wish I had ISO3200 like Miloslav Druckmuller's 5D (£1550)

I wish I was where he was when he took those photos!
A one second exposure with a camera at ISO3200 in my back yard
would just show an orange haze!

(sorry, only joking, I don't mean to sound pedantic )

Ideally, what's you'll need are multiple exposures of a similar area of sky with a foreground object. IMHO, the way to do it is as follows:

1) Take an image of a good foreground object which shows it reasonably well illuminated. Don't work about the sky at this stage.

2) Set the camera to ISO400 and 30-60sec exposures on a tracking mount. Exposures will vary depending on how much light pollution you have. Too high an ISO gives a noisy image - I'd stick to ISO400. Too long an exposure will result in the image washed out with sky glow. Try different exposures to see how far you can go before sky glow kicks in.

3) After you've taken the exposures for a few hours (assuming you get that much clear sky!), merge the images together.

4) Overlay the final image on the one with the foreground object to get something similar to what that lad Miloslav got.

Does this make sense?

Seanie: Congrats on the camera! Welcome to the club! (Now, I must have a word with Denise...)

Yep Mike.
Thanks.
I had half thought about lowering the ISO or not stopping down the app. as much to get a less noisy / sharper image... but I guess its a fine balance
between having either a fine sharp image and no meteors or a
slightly noisy blurry one with some meteors.

Again,
after a quick check on the weather sites...
this is probably stuff I can take with me what I go to Arizona next year.