Leonied Meteor Shower

[Bad Andy]

Hello. Anyone going out to shoot the Leonied (sp?) meteor shower tonight? I was thinking of driving to the desert to get away from the city to shoot it. Has anyone had any success? I am figuring I need my tripod, remote control, and a thermos of coffee.

I have two lenses that I can use. My new 50MM 1.4 and my "jack of all trades" 18-200. Would it be better to use a wider angle such as the 18 MM of the 18-200, or go with the better optical quality (and more light) of the 50MM.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. Out here on the west coast they say the best time to watch is between 12:30 and 2:30.

Look forward to any suggestions.

-Andy

 

[TJ K]

I would say the 18-200 is your best bet and shoot somewhere around f/8 for best quality. Use a tripod and a low iso. You don't need speed for night stuff because you'll have it on a tripod from 10 seconds to hours if you want. Do you want to catch just the star or more of the motion of the stars? You can adjust zoom w/ the 18-200 so you can get in close or far but with the 50 thats as wide or close as your getting because you can't dig a hole and go lower or go high up for a closer shot. GL with this.

 

[Provo]

Hello. Anyone going out to shoot the Leonied (sp?) meteor shower tonight? I was thinking of driving to the desert to get away from the city to shoot it. Has anyone had any success? I am figuring I need my tripod, remote control, and a thermos of coffee.

I have two lenses that I can use. My new 50MM 1.4 and my "jack of all trades" 18-200. Would it be better to use a wider angle such as the 18 MM of the 18-200, or go with the better optical quality (and more light) of the 50MM.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. Out here on the west coast they say the best time to watch is between 12:30 and 2:30.

Look forward to any suggestions.

-Andy

Post your results please I was thnking the same thing but presently I have some cloud over in my area not 100% clear sky and at the rate I am headed I am feeling sleepy already LOL. Also even more curious since we have the same camera.

 

[ecnal]

My girlfriend and I are going to drive a few towns over to see if we can catch it. I'll try to take some pics, but I only have a kit lens and a f/4 55-200. I wish I had a cable release!

 

[fokker]

My girlfriend and I are going to drive a few towns over to see if we can catch it. I'll try to take some pics, but I only have a kit lens and a f/4 55-200. I wish I had a cable release!

Just use the timer mode, slightly less convenient than a cable release but gives the same end result.

 

[Provo]

My girlfriend and I are going to drive a few towns over to see if we can catch it. I'll try to take some pics, but I only have a kit lens and a f/4 55-200. I wish I had a cable release!

Get a cheap one I seen a standard wired shutter release on ebay or 15 bucks. Or if you want to spend a bit more you can get the one I have the Phottix cleon 2 is a combo unit you get wireless and wired I love this thing. Good company the product is rock solid in my experience so far.

 

[docphotog]

REALLY EXCITED!!! I've been catching the leonids for probably 10 years now but this is my first time with a dSLR

I have 3 lenses to choose from

50 1.8
70-300 mm 4-5.6
17-85mm 4-5.6

I have a tripod and I was just going to wing it but if anyone has any good tips on which lens to use, what f stop, exposure time, anything else that would be absolutely DOPE.

If you know anywebsites that'd be great too. I'd love to catch star trails

 

[TJ K]

My girlfriend and I are going to drive a few towns over to see if we can catch it. I'll try to take some pics, but I only have a kit lens and a f/4 55-200. I wish I had a cable release!

Just use the timer mode, slightly less convenient than a cable release but gives the same end result.

Unless the exposure is more than 30 seconds then you're screwed unless you want to hold you finger on the shutter forever which just screams camera shake on a long exposure.

For the other posts shoot at a low ISO an aperture around f/8 and set the camera to manual and put it on bulb. Hopefully you have a shutter release and can click to open and click to close the shutter. Also you will probably want a lens that is wide but can zoom if you need/want to go in just a bit more than planned. GL everyone i'll be stayin up late for this one!

 

[DennyCrane]

Heh, I was just about to make a thread for this. They're saying on the east coast to set your alarm for 3:30am and from then till 5:30, you'll see the most. 20-30 per hour. Over in Asia, they're getting 200-300 per hour... lucky them. I'm in a very light-polluted area, so this might get tricky.

OK, people are saying f/8. would 70mm be OK? And would that aperture be good for a 30 second exposure, or maybe a little higher? This will be new to me, so I'd like any advice anyone has.

 

[TJ K]

I would just say play around with it. f/4-f/11 is probably all good. I've seen amazing star trails w/ f/2.8 actually. 70mm might be a bit tight if you can bring your 18-55 w/ you as well that might be nice to have incase you end up seeing you want wider for more meteors at once (i know greedy ) Depending on the temperature after some long exposures you might get some hot pixels red,green, and blue dots but those are easy to get out in lr or ps cs4 so no biggie. Have fun 3 30 am it is ehhh

 

[Inst!nct]

Heh, I was just about to make a thread for this. They're saying on the east coast to set your alarm for 3:30am and from then till 5:30, you'll see the most. 20-30 per hour. Over in Asia, they're getting 200-300 per hour... lucky them. I'm in a very light-polluted area, so this might get tricky.

OK, people are saying f/8. would 70mm be OK? And would that aperture be good for a 30 second exposure, or maybe a little higher? This will be new to me, so I'd like any advice anyone has.

im down for waking up at 330 if im guaranteed a good photo , is this possible to see with a 70-300mm lens?

 

[myjay610]

My wife gets up for work at 4:30 anyway so I might check out whats going on outside then. I live right outside of Baltimore and clear skies here for now. I only have the kit lens but think I might try going out w/ it at 18mm and see what happens.

 

[Bad Andy]

Thanks to everyone. I will take the 18-200 and just play around with the settings, but use the tips here as a starting guide. If I get anything interesting I'll post here tomorrow night. Good Luck to everyone!

-Andy

 

[TJ K]

Awesome everyone post up later

 

[DennyCrane]

I took some test shots... and I think the 18mm end of my kit lens will be the hot ticket. f/8 and 30 seconds @ 400 ISO seems OK. 300mm, there's plenty of star trails and the camera on the tripod is VERY susceptible to even a foot step.