Meteor showers happen when earth goes through meteoroid clouds (trail of comet debris). We see the meteors light up, as they are ionized, when falling toward earth. The annual Perseid meteor shower is approaching August 11-13th. These are the dates Earth will be passing through the densest path of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. It last passed through the solar system in 1922 on its 133 year orbit of the sun, but the Earth passes through it’s trail of dust and debris annually. The meteors are travelling at around 37 miles per second as they streak towards our planet at 3000-10000 Fahrenheit! The best chances to view and photograph these meteors will be the early mornings of August 11th, 12th and 13th, providing clear skies. The constellation Perseus rises high in the sky around midnight, so the hours between midnight and dawn are best. However, don’t dismiss the earlier hours prior to midnight as that is your best chance to see the ”earth-grazing” meteors. During the peak nights of the Perseids you can hope to see about 50-70 meteors per hour. In 2019 we had the bonus of a new moon. This year, however, the moon will be at its last quarter phase, potentially making it more difficult to view the meteors...but not impossible! Even with the bright moon, there is still a chance we will be able to see 40-50 meteors/hour due to the brightness of the Perseids. Here in Arizona the moon rises between 11:30 pm and 12:30 am during the peak days, so the dark skies before midnight may be a prime time to start watching. The meteors will continue about 10 days after the peak mornings so there will still be plenty of opportunities to try and capture the Perseids as the moon cycles toward a new moon on August 17.
The basics of photographing a meteor shower are quite simple. A tripod is a must and a wide, fast lens is recommended. Point up around 45 degrees to left or right of the Perseus constellation and keep your shutter open as much as possible (using a continuous slow shutter speed)! Pretty simple, but we’ll go into a little further detail.
Plan your location in advance. Look for a dark sky location nearest you As you may be traveling there and setting up in the dark it’s good to be familiar with the location, especially in determining possible foreground for your composition. Also, keep an eye on the weather forecast. If you see rain and clouds in your local forecast then it might be time to start planning a road trip to a clearer spot on that radar.
Start charging your batteries. To increase your chances of getting that epic shot you will want to be continuously shooting all night. If you show up with a partially dead battery you risk missing that shot that you’ve been dreaming of. It seems like common sense, but it’s one of the most common (and easily preventable) mistakes in the photography world. So if you need to step away from this article to put the batteries on the charger, please do…but then come right back!
Make sure you have a large enough memory card, and that’s it’s empty, formatted and ready to go! Now that you have that, grab another. You don’t want to run out of memory only to have the meteor of a lifetime pass right before your eyes. It’s my suggestion to start with a card no smaller than 32 GB since it will be capturing images all night. A 64 GB or 128 GB would put your mind at ease for a longer period of time. This is a good deal on a 128 GB San Disk Extreme.
Pack your camera bag. If you have a choice between a cropped sensor or a full frame, I recommend the full frame. Keep in mind though, the best camera is the one you have, so don’t stress if your camera is a cropped sensor. Choose your widest, fastest lens. For those not sure what a fast lens is, it’s a lens with wider aperture (lower f-stop) capabilities. A lens that can be set to f2.8 or lower will be better than one that begins at f3.5-5.6. Again, you can still capture with a kit lens so don’t let that stop you begin your journey into night photography. The Rokinon 14mm 2.8 is a good reasonable starting lens for night photography (just be sure to get the version compatible with your camera/brand). Now that your batteries are charged go grab them from the charger and put them in your camera bag. Since the ideal situation is to set your camera and let it continuously shoot the night sky it is suggested that you pick up an intervalometer, if your camera doesn’t allow you to set continuous shots in intervals. Again, you will need to ensure you purchase an intervalometer compatible with your camera. When using your intervalometer you will set your camera into continuous shooting mode, then the intervalometer will continuously open your shutter at whatever interval you set. 1-2 seconds between shots is a good start to give your sensor a quick break and to allow the card to keep. Lastly, don’t forget to pack the tripod!
Pack the car. Yes, it’s almost time to get going! It’s likely you’ll want a comfortable chair, if not a tent/sleeping bag. Bring a headlamp or flashlight to help you get around your location. Most importantly, make sure you get that cooler packed! What pairs best with a group of photo friends and a clear night under the Perseids? A cold beer or two of course! Well, no matter what your preference is, it’s a great idea to bring some drinks and snacks, or perhaps a pot of coffee to keep you awake! Please refer to our Perseid Playlist on Spotify if you need some music to keep your eyes open. https://www.exploretography.com/post/perseid-playlist
Finally, once we are at our location, skies are clear, and meteors are dropping like flies…it’s time to get our camera working for us. Keep in mind, theses settings are just starting points. Please tweak your settings based on your surroundings, intentions, and vision. Start in Manual mode with your lowest F-stop possible, ISO 1600-3200, and shutter speed 15-30 seconds. Turn off any image stabilization/vibration reduction while on your tripod. ensure you have your camera set to continuous shooting mode. Choose a white balance based on your preference. I prefer and suggest shooting in RAW. You’ll be able to fit more JPEGs on your memory card, but it will not make up for the leeway you have when editing RAW files. Before you get ready to shoot you’ll want to set your camera pointing about 45 degrees to the left or right of the Perseus constellation. Don’t worry you don’t have to be exact, you just don’t want to be shooting straight into the constellation if you want to maximize the meteors’ tails. There are several star apps that will help you locate the constellation. Try adding an element of interest in the foreground. Star shots are great, but the most interesting compositions tell a story with context. Focusing can be the tricky part. I’ve always had good luck just setting my lens to the infinity setting on my lens. However, if your lens doesn’t have the infinity setting or if you aren’t seeing the sharpness you want you may want to turn live view on, zoom in to the brightest start and manually focus on it (some will then tape their lens in place to ensure it doesn’t move). Once you have your settings in place, you are ready to start shooting! If you have your intervalometer or interval shooting set you can sit back and enjoy the show.
Be sure to check your settings throughout the night. Your exposure may need to be adjusted as the light changes or your card may fill up. While we like to say set it and forget it, you don’t want to accidentally fall asleep and wake up to a camera that stopped hours before.
We hope these tips will help get you organized before the meteor shower. We will use our first shooting star wish that night to send you all positive vibes and success on your Perseid image creation! Best of luck and keep on clicking!
*A quick lesson on Perseus. He is the son of Danae and Zeus who was sent on what appeared to be a suicide mission to collect a head of a Gorgon sister. He steals the shared eye and tooth of three nasty old sisters who trade him some pretty cool toys for their shared body parts back. The toys included flying sandals, a helmet of invisibility and a backpack strong enough to hold the toxic Gorgon head. He is given advice by Athena to only look at the sisters through the reflection on his shield or else he’ll turn to stone. Long-story short, he sneaks up on Medusa, chops off her head using the reflection in his shield, stuffs the head into the backpack, puts on the invisibility helmet and flies away from the 2 remaining angry sisters using his magical sandals. On the way home he accidentally drops some toxic Medusa blood in the desert creating a new species of extremely venomous snakes and has a little fight with Atlas turning him into stone with Medusa’s head, but you know we all have our bad days…
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