Photographing Meteors

Guys,

I suspect that the best route is to use short exposures (ex. 30 seconds) so as not to have the skyglow overwhelm any meteors caught. In fact, with the Canon EOS cameras, the BEST trick is to have the camera set for continuous exposures and set the exposure to 30 secs ... this way the camera will shoot ad infinitum and all at 30 seconds on its own. I would also suggest a low ISO (ex. 100-200) so as to minimize thermal noise.

I remember a few years ago under mag 7 skies I sat down to do something similar using five-minute exposures .... I had many meteors cross the field of view BUT nothing came out due to the five-min subs.

Oh yeah, a further suggestion: set the camera pointed at the pole during the duration of the multiple 30-sec subs .... this way you can capture star trails segments which you can sum into a neat master star trail photo in the event you do not capture any meteors (so there is something to show for your effort) and, hopefully, you will also have at least one meteor streaking through the field which will be a bonus on top of the star trail photo which you can use individually and/or in conjunction with the master star trail photo.

Good luck .... I will be DSO'ing this evening but might just set up my EOS 300D for something similar and let it do its thing on its own as per the technique above.

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! ).

Many congrats Seanie!

The best part is that my 20-yr old Russian babes/assistants (Aunt Maude's money) are now safe(r).

Seriously though, does anyone here use a camera that's NOT a Canon 350D .

I use a 300D, :lol: seems like the nikon club members list is very small, although there really isnt much of a difference interms of astronomy with these cameras.

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

You realise that you unlimited 1 year warranty is up, :lol: so if it doesn't work, ...... only kidding, let me know if you manage to break it, I need a laugh. :lol:

I remember a WSP talk by Terry Mosely back in the early 90s regarding what he did for meteor photography, it involved buying a number of cameras and having overlapping field of views and capturing the entire sky.
Now , if we were organised, there might be enough club members in the area with such cameras where we could have rigged up some sort of camera rig and have done something like this, he had it guided also (I think!).

Robert Reeves did that...
Check out this mad contraption



And it's film as well!

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

You realise that you unlimited 1 year warranty is up, :lol: so if it doesn't work, ......

Nope, it's working like a charm!

good stuff Seanie, I build them to take all kinds of abuse, they're even Seanie proof. :lol: