perseids tonight, tips please?

[lonelyjew]

The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight and I was hoping to try my luck at getting some pictures of the shower. I tried to do this last year but the cloud cover prevented me from getting anything.

I was wondering what settings I should shoot at. I was planning to use my Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 macro mounted on my Rebel XT(obviously on a tripod with a remote release). I can, with my remote, do bulb exposures without having to hold the button down so I could potentially do some very long exposures.

Anyways, any help here would be appreciated.

[rcfury]

The funny thing I was searching POTN about catching the meteor shower also. Well for what i read you want the widest / fastest lens you have and set the focus to infinity and shoot wide open. You may want to keep your ISO around 800 or so and keep the shutter open less than 15-20 seconds or your going to start getting star trails. From what i learned with long exposures is you might want to use shutter lockup to help keep vibrations to a min.
Thats what im going to do and see what happens...

[DennisW1]

The funny thing I was searching POTN about catching the meteor shower also. Well for what i read you want the widest / fastest lens you have and set the focus to infinity and shoot wide open. You may want to keep your ISO around 800 or so and keep the shutter open less than 15-20 seconds or your going to start getting star trails. From what i learned with long exposures is you might want to use shutter lockup to help keep vibrations to a min.
Thats what im going to do and see what happens...

I believe you meant to say "mirror lockup".... yes?

[MeNaCe 2 SoCiEtY]

is it possible i will be able to see this from California? im hoping to get a few pictures as well.

[zelseman]

is it possible i will be able to see this from California? im hoping to get a few pictures as well.
Yes, but you will need to be in an area with low light pollution such as a very high mountain outside of any major cities.

[MeNaCe 2 SoCiEtY]

gotcha. looks like i might not be able to take pics lol.
thanks Zelseman

[lonelyjew]

Sort of strange question but does anyone know if a polarizer could potentially cut down on light pollution? I realize it'll slow the shutter speed but, since I can't drive hours away to get away from everything, it would be great if it did this. I'm guessing it won't since I don't imagine most light pollution is polarized light but still, who knows?

[Biffbradford]

I'm going to give it a shot as well. Racking my brain trying to think of a dark place to go without driving an hour out of the city like I did last year. Too many trees in the yard. Hmmm ...

[Biffbradford]

Best to shoot in RAW I suppose?

[Digitally_Altered]

gonna head up to arrowhead and try my luck...

[Maureen Souza]

We are heading up into Sequoia Nat'l Park to camp for a few days. We also camped through Perseids last year and the year before...it was amazing up in the mountains. Good luck to all who shoot :)

[hollis_f]

Yes, but you will need to be in an area with low light pollution such as a very high mountain outside of any major cities.

Not really. I've seen the Perseids from a back garden in the middle of Bristol. Yes, the darker the skies, the more you'll see. But there's a failry bright Moon up there just now which will wash out all but the brighter ones anyhow.

Sort of strange question but does anyone know if a polarizer could potentially cut down on light pollution?

Nope, don't use the polariser. You want as much light as possible.