Moods of the sky around our weather instruments 2015-16

[elagache]

Dear Robert and WeatherCat amateur astronomers, . . .

Wow!  What a neat shot! 

I was trying to capture some of - or at least look at - the Geminid meteor shower.

The weather instruments, on the other hand, were pretty stable - even with the Milky way spinning around them.

I must confess, I haven't taken pictures like that in decades.  However, there was a time when I too made a serious effort to capture meteors.  Usually though, I stuck to the Perseids.  If you have to stay up late at night, August is a lot more pleasant than December!   

Saw a couple of star shots, but no one got caught by the camera. 

Don't be too disappointed.  After years of trying to capture meteors, I think I only succeeded once or twice.  It appears that meteors have sensors to detect cameras and cleverly move to some other part of the sky to preserve their privacy . . . .

Cheers, Edouard 

[WCDev]

I was trying to capture some of - or at least look at - the Geminid meteor shower. Saw a couple of star shots, but no one got caught by the camera. 

The weather instruments, on the other hand, were pretty stable - even with the Milky way spinning around them.

Very nice!

[maxen]

Don't be too disappointed.  After years of trying to capture meteors, I think I only succeeded once or twice.  It appears that meteors have sensors to detect cameras and cleverly move to some other part of the sky to preserve their privacy . . . .

Ah, that must be it.
In that case, they share that behavior with chanterelles. If you go look for them they instantly notice and hide under some moss.

[elagache]

Dear Robert and WeatherCat mushroom gourmets . . . .

It appears that meteors have sensors to detect cameras and cleverly move to some other part of the sky to preserve their privacy . . . .

Ah, that must be it.
In that case, they share that behavior with chanterelles. If you go look for them they instantly notice and hide under some moss.

Well, but that's different.  Chanterelles suffer from the fate of being extremely delicious!!    Therefore being able to evade capture is a matter of life and death!

So you are a Chanterelle fan also.  My parents were from France so the cooking traditions definitely take advantage of as many mushrooms as we can find.  Alas, the only kind of wild mushrooms you can find around here are those suitable for rat poison!  So our Chanterelles are store bought.  The Costco membership warehouse occasionally brings in Chanterelles found in Canada.  So we buy those and freeze them.  It is not as good as fresh, but a whole lot better than having none at all!

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers, Edouard 

[bcurry]

We had a pretty good look at the Geminid's this year last week.
Here's one image I got of a meteor zipping past the Milky Way...



Bill

[maxen]

Really nice! 
How did you capture the photo without having the stars moving around (star trails)? Tripod with rotor?

[Bull Winkus]

Very impressive shot, and certainly not an easy one to get. You've got to tell us more about your technique!

 

[elagache]

Dear Bill, Robert, Herb, and WeatherCat shutterbugs, . . . .

We had a pretty good look at the Geminid's this year last week.
Here's one image I got of a meteor zipping past the Milky Way...

  . . . . Well, strictly speaking we should kick that photo off this thread . . . . . . . no weather instruments in it! . . . 

Seriously, count me in as curious about how to did that!

I set my telescope so that I could "piggy-back" a camera and that worked reasonably well.  I used to take pictures of larger objects like the occasional comet that is visible to the naked eye.  It is nonetheless clumsy and requires the telescope.  I know you can buy smaller equatorial tables that will just carry a camera and it much more convenient.  So please do spill the beans on how you took the shot!

Cheers, Edouard 

[bcurry]

You are right - I didn't include my weather instruments, so it should be "illegal" ! LOL

I do a lot of astrophotography, in fact I have a fine art dual show going on (showing in two cities) next year which will focus on my night-time stuff.
To get images such as the meteors, you actually don't need a telescope, but you do need to know a little physics and math.
Meteors are a sort of point and pray kind of deal, so a wide angle lens helps. This is fortunate as that is part of the secret to get stars to stay put.
The formula is called the rule of 500 (or some use 600). Because the earth rotates, you simply divide your true focal length into the number 500, and that is how many seconds (on a tripod mounted stationary camera) you have before you'll see star trails.
So, if you have a 50mm lens, and a full frame camera, you have 10 seconds of exposure before the stars will trail. For meteors,, wide is good, so I used a 14mm lens on a full frame camera and that gave me 35 seconds of exposure (and I used 30 on this one to be safe). I opened the shutter and got a meteor in that 30 second time frame.
The thing to remember is, if you have a crop sensor camera, like, say a Nikon d300 or d90, you have to multiply that lens by 1.5 - i.e. that 50mm is actually a 75 (50x1.5) and so is only 500/75 seconds worth of exposure, or 6 seconds. This is why micro 4/3rds don't work well for astrophotography, as their 2x crop factor means that 50 is really a 100 - or 5 seconds of exposure - probably not enough time to catch a meteor.
Hope that helps,
Bill

Bill Curry Photography
www.billcurry.ca

[Steve]

Bill, what sort of aperture an ISO are you using for that length of time?

[bcurry]

The aperture is wide open - since essentially space to the camera is flat. In my particular case an f2.8 aperture. The ISO is the key element in doing this successfully, as you need it high enough to get the light, but not so high that you get noise. That will vary by camera, but with my Nikon d800e, I can do it with 2000 ISO, because with full frame and that 14 mm lens I get 30 seconds of exposure. My d3s has larger pixels, and so it can get this kind of image at ISO 1000, but I lose the ability to crop a bit as the d800e has more pixels to work with. I manually pre-focus, by the way, at infinity.
Bill

Bill Curry Photography
www.billcurry.ca

[Blicj11]

Thanks for the explanation about your incredible night shot.

[Steve]

Thanks Bill,

I've seen some incredible Milky Way shots with desert foreground, or on the plains, but I haven't tried one yet. I'd never seen the 500/FL calculation before. That's a great one to put in the notebook. Here in NE Ohio, the light pollution would really mess with it, I think. All I've done is lunar photos, which requires much shorter exposures, and much longer lenses. .This is a low resolution 100% crop at f/8, 1/1600 second, with ISO set at 400. The D750 is supposed to be great at reducing noise. My old D200 that I just replaced couldn't get much above 800 without looking like it was snowing.



I have a 16mm f/2.8, so the next time I'm out somewhere *really* dark, I'll have to give this a try.

Thanks again,
Steve

[bcurry]

Hi Steve-
Dark skies are a blessing and something to be preserved.
We live in an area designated as a "Dark Sky Reserve" - North America's first. I have been doing the photography for the project, and have been giving night lessons and so forth now for a couple of years. It is very rewarding, but does take some effort to get folks onboard.
The link below details our efforts - and almost all of the images on the pages are mine.
Cheers,
Bill

http://www.acadianskies.com

Bill Curry Photography
www.billcurry.ca

[Bull Winkus]

Love it! Thanks for the en-light-enment.