Sunday, August 13, 2017

The Perseids

I almost forgot that last night was the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, created by fragmented debris of the Swift-Tuttle Comet.  Depending entirely on the weather and cloud cover, this is usually the brightest meteor shower of the year.

Visibility was threatened by the moonlight, but at 11 p.m. we remembered and discovered that the moon hadn't risen yet.  So we went out and sat on the deck for 10 minutes until our eyes got used to the darkness, and the stars started appearing.  I put the camera on the tripod and tried some exposures to see if I could remember how to do it.  These exposures are taken on a manual setting, with the ISO set to 6400, and a 30 second exposure

I pointed the camera toward the corner of the sky where the Perseids are centred, and waited for action!  I aimed just below the constellation Cassiopeia, the 'Big W' (albeit distorted a bit).  It's a little hard to pick out in this exposure.  The camera is picking up FAR more stars than our eyes saw.

By reducing the ISO to 3200, the photo is darker, fewer stars show up, and Cassiopeia shows up much more easily.

Then I sat there and took 45 pictures of this part of the sky, hoping for meteors to appear.  Quite a few did, but not in this part of the sky!  We each saw about a dozen white streaks across the heavens in 30 minutes of watching, but the camera didn't catch a single one!

This was a passing plane, heading into Toronto.

This is the Northern Cross, part of the constellation Cygnus.  My dad always referred to this one when he was teaching navigation (with the stars) during WWII.

And here's the Big Dipper, part of the constellation Ursa Major.  It's a handy one to know because the right hand two stars point to the North Star, which unfortunately I missed.  It's just off the picture to the upper right.

Then the moon rose, and washed out the entire show.  I may try again tonight.


Just for good measure, here are two photos from last year, the first showing a bit of the Milky Way, and the second showing a Perseid Meteor!  It really is possible to photograph them - if you get lucky!

Go sit in the dark outside on a clear night and wait til your eyes get used to the dark.  The sky puts on quite a show!


15 comments:

  1. You had a great evening and thanks for sharing with us who forgot and had smoky skies anyway.

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  2. Between the smoky skies and clouds, I'm afraid I'll miss the show here in Oregon. Thanks for sharing your night sky photos. It looks very difficult to capture the meteor shower but I'm glad you tried!

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  3. Love you night time photos , nice to be able to catch some nice shots.
    The nights skies can be amazing, but have never seen them so clear and bright as from the desert in the southwest.

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  4. Thank you for your night skies, I was experiencing a different sky behind my eyelids. I was in bed at 9:30! I'm getting better at grabbing my tripod when I go places but most often now it is just for portrait group shots so I can be in the picture. Eventually, like with the birds, I'll use it for more nature photos.

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  5. Hello, we had cloudy skies here. Your night sky photos are awesome. Love the stars, moon and the meteor capture. Happy Monday, enjoy your new week!

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  6. We had cloud cover this year. Love the celestial display this time of year. It is wonderful to stop everything and just gaze to the heavens as you did.

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  7. Nice night sky shots, even if you didn't get much in them. I especially like the Big Dipper picture; it brought back memories of sitting outside under the stars and identifying known constellations. :-)

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  8. It is amazing to see the number of stars in your night sky! As you know the light pollution in the city really blocks out most of them here!

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  9. Wow what cool pictures. I've never seem the big dipper so clearly before.
    We'll have to get up to HT at night and see the sky.

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  10. Thanks for sharing. We missed the shower this year first due to heavy smoke in the sky from the fires in the interior, and then from rain clouds. The rain cleared the air at least. - Margy

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  11. I have seen it before. The city lights here tend to wash them out completely.

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  13. I could learn a lot from you on these star formations. I walked the dog at night and could see lots of different formations I was glad that I had to be out so I would be able to see the sky.

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  14. You have some great night shots there. I haven't made it out once this summer yet. Although challenging, taking photos at night gives one a great feeling. I haven't done enough of it to be really good at it but I'm hoping this winter under dark clear cool desert night skies to have another crack at it in Arizona and California.

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