anyone shooting the Perseid meteor showers tonight?

[Luke]

I'm not a very nocturnal beast and getting up in the middle of the night to drive to a dark spot in the country is quite unlikely. Who's gonna shoot this phenomenon for me?

 

[Briar]

Not me, it's bed time!

 

[kyteflyer]

Not me, its daytime

 

[Luke]

Sue, you must have nighttime eventually, right?

 

[Isoterica]

Tooo close to the city, would have to drive quite a while and as the sun is setting I am seeing big billowy clouds which means they'll probably be there when it's dark too. That astrophotography kind of thing is something I'd like to try sometime though.

 

[Luke]

I may set my alarm for 3 am and take a look out the window. If it's clear out, I may go for a drive and see what i can find. There's some pretty big corn field about a 20 minute drive from me that might be far enough from the city to not have too much light noise pollution. But more likely, I'll wonder why I set the alarm for 3 am and go back to sleep.

 

[Isoterica]

That would be cool if you could do it Luke. I'd have to drive a good hour and a half from home to accomplish the same thing. And if you set the alarm you have to at least get up and look. If you get up and look you at least need to get out there and try. All the good photos are made under effort right Just trying to be encouraging.

 

[kyteflyer]

Sue, you must have nighttime eventually, right?

naw, we decided to give it a miss this year

but, in any case, we are overcast, have been for days, and...

For observers in the Southern Hemisphere, the Perseid radiant never climbs above the horizon, which will considerably reduce the number of Perseid meteors you are likely to see. Nevertheless, on the night of maximum, it is possible to see 10-15 meteors per hour coming up from the northern horizon.

a few years back, I was away on vacation (camping) with friends at this time of year (the weather was wonderfully balmy) and we did see a few meteors. maybe a half dozen over the evening, but that was it. Its mostly a northern hemisphere event.

 

[Luke]

it's not the getting up so much. But the fumbling in the dark with a tripod. Wondering if it's going to cloud over by the time I get there. And then the time to do it, and then the ride back home and then being cranky most of the day tomorrow because I didn't get a proper night's sleep. If I were 27 years old again, I'd just stay up all night. But I'm the oldest 43 old I know. This old man needs to be in bed by 10 or he starts getting cranky.....LOL.

Still, I'd say there's around a 4% chance I'll do it.

 

[Isoterica]

For me it's getting someone to go with me. Woman in a cornfield by herself in the middle of the night thing-- I'm just not comfortable with that. And no one else would get up because it's in the middle of the night and you want to go where?? LOL

 

[Luke]

yeah, that would sound crazy to most anyone who isn't a photographer.

 

[Country Parson]

I took a look about 4:30 this morning but it was overcast here. I will see what tonight brings.

 

[BBW]

What an ignoramus I am! I'd completely forgotten about this - and apparently last night (Saturday night here in the USA) was the peak: Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Saturday Night: The Best Times To View The 2012 Shower - International Business Times I suppose I can console myself with the fact that it was an overcast night.

Luke, how did you do? I expect a picture of you and your dogs peering out the window together.

P.S. Dan, I have faith in you... Set that phone alarm. You do live in a wonderful place to be able to see this. If we were ready to spend the night up at our new old place, we would be as well.

 

[Luke]

Luke, how did you do? I expect a picture of you and your dogs peering out the window together.

I felt like a coward. When I was going to bed last night I didn't set the alarm. Then around 3:30 I woke up (must have been guilt), so i clambered out of bed and went to the front window. Man, our neighborhood is BRIGHT at 3:30 in the morning. Street lights and some neighbors have yard lights or lights on the garages. I could have given police a good description of a person who was 30 feet away. Definitely too much light to try to capture them from my yard (my only real thought). Still, I wandered to the back yard away from the street lights.

I saw a plane flying by and then a fast bright light streak through the sky. I wiped my eyes a bit and stared into the not very complete darkness. I couldn't make out any stars. I wondered if I had just hallucinated the meteor. Then I wondered if the battery in my camera had a full charge (not likely) and realized that long exposure shots definitely eat batteries. I wasn't sure where my tripod was and I still hadn't picked up a remote shutter release cable yet.

I went back to bed and struggled a bit to get back to sleep knowing there were some awesome shots if I weren't so lazy. I asked my dog Lucy to come snuggle a little closer for comfort and went back to sleep and had some fantastic meteor shower photography dreams. I had nearly forgotten about those until I was typing these.

The shot you suggest BB, is one I can picture in my stream. And one that is very much in my personal style (if I have one). Lucy and I will do one tonight called "Looking for the Perseids"......dedicated to you.

 

[texascbx]

I got up at 330AM and it was kind of hazy so I did not even set up my cam. But I saw a meteor about every five minutes or so and that was what made it worth it to me. I found some different rules for shooting falling stars and one was to set your cam at 3200 ISO and leave the shutter open for 30 seconds at a time, but that does not work very well with a A77. Too much noise and removing it would remove most of the detail.

The other way is to set the cam on 200 ISO and use a thirty minuter shutter. I've done that for star trails on clear nights but it was just too hazy. I have quite a bit of light pollution living here within 50 miles of Dallas.

 

[Isoterica]

Was out at 11:30 but the sky wasn't conducive which could have been clouds or could have been light pollution. I think only once in my life I saw a shooting star or whatever it was-- only once in my life I saw a ufo thing too. But I've always lived in a too well lit area to see very much and when I saw either they were kinda hard to believe.

 

[texascbx]

This morning was the peak so they will still be going for another day or two pretty good.

Where I live, the radiant is in the east and I saw most of them looking straight up. I have a chair that lays down flat.

 

[pdh]

I've had the blessing of clear(-ish) skies during the day gradually clouding over to 100% by nightfall ... so ... no