Hello!
Few days ago (August 12th) was the peak of Perseid meteor shower. So me and 5 of my friends went to somewhere safe and quiet and clean to observe the sky. Fortunately, I knew a small house 6 km away from a village that was a good spot for that purpose. We didn't have the key for the house, but we could get to the roof with a ladder. So Tuesday night we went there, took our stuff to the roof with a little bit hassle. The ladder wasn't sturdy and it was missing a step. Anyway we managed to took ourselves and tools for cooking the dinner, sleeping and cameras to the roof. The reason we wanted to get to the roof was that the place is that there might be wolves and snakes around, so not safe to lie on the ground and watch the sky.
First my friends cooked the dinner so we could watch the sky with a full belly.
There were no lights there and we used our phones and flash lights to see what we were doing. After eating dinner, I set up my main camera (6D + 24-105) for that star trails. The first disappointment happened here, when I realized my considered fully charged battery is actually empty. Fortunately I had an extra full battery in my camera bag, so I replaced the battery. While my main camera was taking photos of the sky, I took photos of my friends with my other camera (80D + 50 f/1.8).
It was around 2:30 A.M. that my friend told me that my camera is not taking pictures any more. The second battery was over after around 300 shots.I expected it to last more, but sadly, my expectations doesn't change reality.
At this point I mounted the 50mm on 6D and took the battery of 80D to continue photographing my friends.
Just to check the ability of my camera, I took this photo at 3:11 A.M. while the only source of light was the rising moon which was not even full or high in the sky.
One thing that comes to my mind while taking shots like this is what if I spot a dangerous animal in the photo? or worse, what if few mysterious people showed up in the photo? What should I do about it?
We were tired by then, two of my friends were already asleep, and the others were going to sleep. I was the last one to sleep after trying to see more meteors.
The next day, my friends left at 9 in the morning to get back to work and I went back to the village to check the photos of the night before.
I don't know I was fortunate to capture one meteor or unfortunate to capture JUST one meteor, but anyway, I captured one meteor.
Did you see any meteor in the past week?
Should I do a tutorial on how to take star trails photos?
You might have gotten three meteors, in your star trail photo there is what looks like a couple of meteors, although I guess they could be satellites. To overcast and not dark enough for us to see meteors on the twelfth.
Yeah, you're right, I took a look at all the 292 photos and found ~5 more, two are obvious in the star trail shot, there was another relatively bright one but the rest were really faint.
Ah, overcast, nothing can be done about that...
And not really dark enough yet here. A few stars were visible at midnight, but then I am getting into bed, by 5:30 am it is already to light to see any stars. About another month and then I hope to try to get some night shots before the bitter cold sets in.
yeah 5:30 is too bright for that, and even though you could see bright meteors in the the city with its light pollution, the experience is completely different when you're somewhere totally quiet and dark.
Lovely photos, especially that last shot! Loved reading about your adventure! 😊
Thanks! glad to you enjoyed it!
I did think about these showers on the 12th! But the clouds prevented me from sitting out all night to catch one and wish upon it for a lucky spell.
Your photo is absolutely spectacular! Not a sky I'd ever get to see from my geolocation, but it sure does help to create a new inter-location where eyes pierce the darkness to look out for signs of majestic long-gone reality. That is to say, the meteorite is pretty here and now real, unlike most of the other stellar light, I suppose.
I believe a meteor shower is very cleansing. It may ruffle a few feathers here and there but that is also a great way to get rid or irritating parasites.
Could you explain for me why it is so light in the picture which doesn't seem to hide an alien or ravenous wolf? What was the shutter speed/aperature? Tripod work, I presume, for sure?
Very breathtaking how many many stars, how very large your heavens are out there....I enjoy the silence roaring through this sphere of living consciousness.
Here we don't have many cloudy days, so less rain, but more sky...
Ah! I forgot to wish for a lucky spell. Lol.
Thanks! Yeah meteors are so close, so we see them as it happens (still there's a tiny fraction of a second delay) but for the stars, I guess the closest one that we could easily see is about 25ly away. Though Jupiter, mars, Venus and Saturn are also visible sometimes.
The moon was up, yeah, I had a tripod and a fast lens, f/1.8, and I guess I used 30a exposure with iso-3200. I can't remember, I'll check it.
Yeah, it was a great experience.