Anyone going to catch the meteor shower tonight?

flight3

Just curious if anyone will be staying up late or waking up early to catch the shower and possibly snap some photos? I've been trying to for the past few meteor showers but my area was covered in clouds each time ~X( . I'll be trying once more, but I haven't decided whether I'll be staying up late or waking up early...I hear that it might peak a little before sunrise.

You can read more about it here: http://earthsky.org/tonight/lyrid-meteors-increase-while-moon-waxes-throughout-weekend

tcole1983

I might check it out tonight. Probably won't take any pictures.

Beso

I may stay up depending on what happens with the cloud cover. To get decent photographs I would need to head east away from the city (Portland, Or). So if it looks like the clouds are going to clear I might just grab my camera, tripod, and do a little night trip.

flight3

@Beso
Nice, yea it's getting clearer, but we still have a little ways to go. If anything, I'm probably going to photograph some star trails while I'm out.

Msmoto

From about 4 AM to 5:15 AM....used multiple 30 second exposures..about 100+.....caught one airplane flying overhead...LOL

John

I don't know if it's related to the mentioned meteor shower but it looks like you had to be in Argentina to watch the fireworks.

flight3

So I woke up at 4 and the sky was filled with clouds, but they cleared by 430. I went out then, but I didn't have much time until daylight came and took the stars away . Oh well there is another meteor shower in 2 weeks

@John wow! that would have been awesome to see in person!

tcole1983

I don't think it is supposed to be peak tonight but the weather is great and clear skys...going to try some moon shots and meteor watching.

tcole1983

Double...

Beso

I went out last night, actually early this morning between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Clear skies, lots of stars but no meteors.

Msmoto

What exposure settings are you folks using?

Vipmediastar

What exposure settings are you folks using?

When the weather clears in the windy city I'm going to try the following 30 seconds 1600 iso f 2.8 with d800 and 24-70

Msmoto

OK, I was using 30 seconds. f/8, ISO 320 on D4 35mm focal length...and this may have been a bit under exposed, although the airplane lights overhead were about right and I captured thousands of stars.

We are, however, apart by a factor of 32....or five f/stops

autofocus

@Vipmediastar- Here is a photo with those settings taken on a cloudy night. Nothing to look at but you get the idea of what it will produce. This is straight out of camera jpg resized only. This is with D800, ISO 1600, 30 sec, Nikon 24-70mm, f2.8 @ 35mm

flight3

I was at 30 seconds, F10 and ISO 100. Tho I also went on to about about a minute long exposures.

Vipmediastar

Thanks autofocus. I have a few spots in mind to try out. I want to keep the shots under 30 secs to avoid star trails for my first sets. Doing some searches for settings I found those recommendations a while ago and saved them in my to do list app.

Hopefully it gets warm soon and the sky clears up so that I can finally try it.

Msmoto

My conclusion is...I will do a lot of testing the next time I try this. I think I will attempt my shots near an observatory as ground light is the worst enemy of long exposures.