camera setting for metro shower

[petr321]

Hi to all. Does anyone know what would be good camera settings for tonight's metero shower. Any help would be great.

[silvrr]

I thinking your looking for Meteor not metro shower.

I would use low ISO (100) long exposure (30 sec) and a smaller aperature (f8). Keep taking 30" exposures and you should get some nice star trails and hopefully some meteors going across.

However, was'nt this last night? Or is it again tonight?

[mprayii]

I dont know anything, sorry.

but I like the subject of your question, haha. Wish I could find something funny to post, but my good search of "metro shower" only showed me some kid taking a shower on youtube. Not what I was hoping for so I closed it..... but I guess I should have guessed?

[smphotography]

the showers were last night august 11, 10pm till august 12, 5am

[Biffbradford]

There will still be some tonight though. I'm counting on it! Have a couple dark sky areas I'm going to until the cops chase me out. :mrgreen:

[ady.space]

I thinking your looking for Meteor not metro shower.

I would use low ISO (100) long exposure (30 sec) and a smaller aperature (f8). Keep taking 30" exposures and you should get some nice star trails and hopefully some meteors going across.

However, was'nt this last night? Or is it again tonight?
it would probley be better to have your camera set at iso800

[silvrr]

it would probley be better to have your camera set at iso800

I would be worried about noise at 800 on a longer exposure. Remember that the stars are pretty bright against the night sky and I would expect the meteors would be the same.

[DHMN]

The biggest problem last night was the moon.. the second problem was you NEVER know where they're going to come from so it's 'hit or miss' for the most part.

[Biffbradford]

Last night ran 30secs, ISO 100, f 2.8 with 18mm lens in the city. Most of my visual sightings were to the south or southeast around midnight.

[cspratt]

Point your camera away from the radiant. For "long" trails a south-east direction at about 45 degrees is good but depends on horizon and light pollution. 200ISo to 400Iso, 30sec exposure and on a tripod. Use a 50-100mm fast lens (a fast 85mm would be good). If you like star trails a 135 f/3.5 or higher would just start to show some trails, but if light pollution is bad image (most of North American cities have bad light pollution) will be washed out.

[NeoTokyo]

It is also suppose to be tonight according to my yahoo.

[Adrena1in]

... the second problem was you NEVER know where they're going to come from ...

Well, actually, you do...kind of. The Perseid Meteor Showers are so named because they eminate from the region of the Perseus Constellation. Just like the Orionids come from Orion, the Leonids come from Leo, etc etc.

But you do need quite a wide-angle lens to be sure of capturing them. I shot from 9:30pm to 1am the other night, with my 18mm lens, and I think I got perhaps 5 or 6 meteors, though I think only about half were Perseids.

[hollis_f]

Well, actually, you do...kind of. The Perseid Meteor Showers are so named because they eminate from the region of the Perseus Constellation. Just like the Orionids come from Orion, the Leonids come from Leo, etc etc.

But they don't actually start in Perseus. They're spread over much of the sky. However, if you draw lines back from their trails they'll intersect at a point near the radiant.

Point your camera away from the radiant. For "long" trails a south-east direction at about 45 degrees is good

Except that you'll be pointing straight at the Moon.

Somewhere north of east will give the best chance. I'd recommend using a wide-angle lens and taking a test shot of 30s. Examine it for signs of moonlight wiping out the stars and move your camera direction - north if you are getting interference, south if you're not.

[DHMN]

Last night.. well, 9 hours ago now ;) the best/brightest/widest ones I saw were in the south sky mostly behind trees.. but the most numerous were both straight west and north west.. I definitely agree that I need a more wide angle lens than just shooting at 50mm on my 50-135mm Tokina F2.8 that doesn't come out of my bag except for hockey/basketball games.

[painful100]

Im amateur, but can someone tell me why you can use such a low aperture when shooting stars? AND, how do you get the stars in good focus? thanks a lot

[hollis_f]

Im amateur, but can someone tell me why you can use such a low aperture when shooting stars? AND, how do you get the stars in good focus? thanks a lot

Stars are dim - so you need to use a wide aperture to get as much light as possible.

Focus can be a problem. It's worse when you use longer lenses. I used 10mm for my shots and set the focus to infinity on the lens. Then I took a test shot and zoomed in on the LCD. That looked OK soI started shooting. If I were using a longer lens then I'd have probably focussed manually using Live Mode.