How do I shot the Meteor Shower?

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if you could help me. I am going to attempt to take some pictures of the meteor shower this week and was wondering what setting I should use for my camera. I am an extereme newbie so it will really have to be spelled out for me.

I have a rebel XTI, kit lens and 50mm lens, tripod and remote (RC-1). I have read that the settings to use should be as follows:

ISO = 800 or higher
AP - between 8 and 11?
30 second exposures or more (how do I do this?)
use maual mode with shutter speed set to bulb
keep lens at infinity focus in manul mode

Do I require anything else? Am on the right track? Can this be done without a cable release (remote shutter release)? I have never done this before.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I'd go with the kit lens, as wide as possible. At 50mm your chances of capturing a meteor are reduced massively.

Punta Cana Bride wrote in post #10684211
ISO = 800 or higher

That should be about right.

Punta Cana Bride wrote in post #10684211
AP - between 8 and 11?

Personally I'd open it up a bit more. I usually open the aperture fully, and then close down two or three stops.

Punta Cana Bride wrote in post #10684211
30 second exposures or more (how do I do this?)
use maual mode with shutter speed set to bulb

That's how you expose for longer than 30s. Bulb setting, then lock your remote shutter. It'll expose for as long as you keep the remote shutter locked.

Punta Cana Bride wrote in post #10684211
keep lens at infinity focus in manul mode

Don't focus the lens right out to "infinity", as it'll go past infinity and your stars/meteors will be a bit blurred. Try and manually focus on a really bright star, and then leave it at that.

Punta Cana Bride wrote in post #10684211
Can this be done without a cable release (remote shutter release)? I have never done this before.

Ah, it's preferable if you do have a cable release, but not vital. If you don't have one, forget Bulb mode for starters and set it to 30-second exposure, then turn on the timer to 2-seconds. That way, when you press the shutter, the camera has 2 seconds to lose any vibrations before taking the shot. As soon as the shot's finished, preview it and see how it looks. If everything's a bit too dark, up the ISO and maybe open the aperture a bit. If it's too light, drop the ISO or close the aperture a bit. Once you're happy with the way a shot looks, take as many as you can I would say. You're bound to capture a meteor or two in there somewhere.

Really though, get a remote shutter release if you haven't got one, they make life so much easier!

Thanks alot for your help Adrena,

Adrena1in wrote in post #10686566
Ah, it's preferable if you do have a cable release, but not vital. If you don't have one, forget Bulb mode for starters and set it to 30-second exposure, then turn on the timer to 2-seconds.

How do I do this?

Also, download google sky maps onto your iphone so that your iphone will point you to polaris. That way the exposure will rotate around polaris and you will get better looking star trails.
Maybe experiment with longer exposures, like 5 min at 400 iso.

http://www.nunukphotos​.com …ails-delicate-arch-pv.jpg

Well, for shooting meteors you want to aim towards where they eminate from...in this case, Perseus. Stellarium or Wiki will tell you where it is, but for those who aren't sure, look towards the North East. About 45 or 50 degrees up you'll see a sort of large 'W' shape of stars. Perseus is almost straight below the 'W'.

Punta, as for the settings if you don't have a cable release, it's pretty easy. I gather you know how to set the aperture, ISO and exposure time to 30s? The timer is the one that lets you press the shutter button, but the camera waits 2 or 10 seconds before taking the picture. Camera shake isn't a massive problem at wide angles and 30s when you press the button to take the picture, (if you're careful), but the timer will just give you that pause between pressing the button and the shot being taken, that's all.

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Adrena1in wrote in post #10695734
Well, for shooting meteors you want to aim towards where they eminate from...in this case, Perseus.

Actually this is a minor consideration. The focal point (Perseus) is where all the shooting stars will point back to, but they will not come from there... does that make sense???

If you looked at all of the shooting stars on a map, and then extended their trails across the entire sky. Then you would see that all of those trails cross at Perseus. In reality the shooting stars can, and do appear nearly everywhere in the sky, though they will nearly all be on a vector that leads back to Perseus. The DARKEST part of the sky is the biggest factor to consider.

I shoot along the shore line of Lake Erie, and due north is the darkest part of the sky for me (out over the lake), south of me I get some suburban lights, and to the West is the glow from Cleveland. The glow alone makes exposure difficult, and it also significantly cuts down on number of meteorites.

I also tend to not go super wide... though do change lenses throughout the night. I pick a decent size sector of the sky and I shoot it. The issue I found with shooting very wide (like 10-20 mm) is that the faint ones don't show. So you see more sky which improves your odds, but you capture fewer of the ones that you see. It is a trade off. Of course with a narrower field of view, you get more of what passes in front of the camera, but fewer of the total since you are looking at a smaller area. So in my opinion when they say go wide... I would recommend somewhere in the 20-30mm range, don't let the need for a ultra wide scare you off, you may even do better.

Shoot towards the darkness and you will get your best results. Also, don't chase them. It is very frustrating, you will see 3 or 4 in a row behind you, and you re-compose and then they don't continue. The are scattered across the sky randomly, you cannot get ahead of them, predict them, or beat them. Set up towards the dark, spend some time tweaking your method to improve your results... you got lots of time... and then sit back and fire away.

One last note. The show can be highly variable, and if one thing has been proven it is that the people who do the predictions are less accurate than the weather man. Last year the "peak" was pretty poor, and the next night was great. Some years the night before is the hot one. Even worse, last year was a very bright moon, that may have effected my ability to capture the dimmer ones on my ultra-wide lens. This year, no moon at all to deal with. In any case have fun.

boufa wrote in post #10698996
Actually this is a minor consideration. The focal point (Perseus) is where all the shooting stars will point back to, but they will not come from there... does that make sense???

Yeah, I know what you mean...I did see one the other night that went through between Cygnus and Lyra, and when I traced my eyes back in the direction from whence it came I arrived at Perseus, so I assumed I'd seen a Perseid. I guess I was just saying that, even though I agree with what IUnknown said about getting Polaris into Star Trails shots, aiming there to capture meteors isn't necessarily correct.

What I would do at my home location is aim to a point in the sky which is a) dark, b) has some interesting objects that can be captured at wide angles, (such as M31 or the Milky Way or a nice constellation), and c) isn't too far from Perseus.

If you don't have a remote shutter then you can always use your computer and the software that came from your camera.

With this, it will be easier to look at an image and see whether it is in or out of focus (and you an use live view on a larger screen)

Lastly, I don't know THAT much about stars and so forth, but doing something like a 5 minute exposure is a mistake IMO. Unless you have equipment that tracks the movement of the stars, then you're going to see lots of star trails and it's going to be harder to make out the shooting stars. Keep it at 30 seconds to 1 min.

I'd use the lowest aperture possible so you don't go too high on the ISO and have hot pixels that look like red and blue dots all over your image, not to mention the grain.

These guys are hit and miss, depending on your settings will depend highly on which ones your camera picks up and which ones it doesn't. If you have little tiny shooters going on, at an f/3.5 ISO 1600, you still wont pick it up, or just barely so.

Hope it goes well, try and experiment on day 1 and then perfect your technique on day 2. You'll figure out the best settings on your own, this is all just advice from past experiences.

Thanks to everyone for your help with this. I will try my best to get some decent shots. I will be up at the cottage in Haliburton area so should have pretty good luck with it being dark without city lights getting in the way. I won't have access to a computer so I guess I will just have to point, shoot and hope for the best.

I won't be able to start shooting until Friday night so I hope they are still there since Thursday is supposed to be the best night for it.

If I get anything at all decent I will try to post them on here.

Thanks again.

Personally I'd like to set this up and then just leave it running. That means using the longest exposure possible (not bulb mode) with whatever lens you're using, using the wired cable release which lets you lock the shutter button so that the camera will continue taking 30 second exposures until the card fills. Get it set up before hand, do some test shots, that way you can just sit back and watch the meteors.