Photographing a meteor shower?

[PaulWog]

There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight, and I figured I'd try getting a couple shots just for fun.

The problem is that my wide lens (Sigma 10-20mm) goes down to f4, which I presume is a couple stops slow for what I want to do. Unfortunately the next widest lens I have is a 50mm f1.8, which is rather long.

Is f4 too slow for a 1/30 exposure at around ISO 3200? I'm not sure if I can expect to get properly exposed images.

 

[jsecordphoto]

f4 won't be too bad. 2.8 would obviously be better but f4 will work. Not sure how your camera performs at higher iso's but if you can get away with iso4000 or 6400 it'd help. Run 30 second exposures for as long as you can and hope you end up with some good frames! With the full moon I haven't gone out yet, not sure how much it'll effect the show, but I have seen a few crazy meteors in the last few days while sitting out on my girlfriend's porch

 

[KmH]

You'll get better results using an ISO setting of 400 at f/4.

As far as shutter speed, if you don't want the background stars blurred use the formula: 600 / focal length = shutter speed.
600 / 20 mm = 30 seconds
600 / 15 mm = 40 seconds

Aim your camera just to the side of the shower radiant to maximize how many meteors you can photograph.

This being the Perseid shower, the shower doesn't happen all on one night. It started in late July and will continue to the end of the month.
The 12th and 13th should be the peak nights that have the most meteors. The best time is usually just a few hours before dawn.
The Perseid shower is the best known of the more reliable meteor showers of the year.

This year will be hampered because of a full moon with the Moon as close to Earth as it will get this year.
That makes the Moon larger in the sky, and brighter.

Try to time your shoot so the moon is directly behind the camera.

The Perseid meteor show is caused by debris from the periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle (133 year orbit period).
Discovered in 1862, Comet Swift-Tuttle last reached perihelion, or the closest point to the Sun, back in December 1992 and will do so next in July 2126.
An unusual aspect of the Comet Swift-Tuttle orbit is that it is captured in a 1:11 resonance with Jupiter. Comet Swift-Tuttle makes 1 orbit for every 11 orbits Jupiter makes.
While the Sun comprises 99% of all the mass in our solar system, Jupiter has the next most mass and has a significant influence on the orbits of other objects in the solar system.

 

[jsecordphoto]

....iso400? Those photos are guaranteed to be underexposed. When I posted last night I forgot to compensate for the bright moon, so 6400 would be totally unnecessary, but closer to iso1250 or 1600 would be closer to where you'd want to be. Even with a full moon shooting at f2.8, iso400 would result in underexposed stars/sky, nevermind having any sort of foreground.

 

[MDWine]

That last "shower" in May was supposed to be spectacular, but I didn't hear of anyone seeing what was touted to be a special event. I'm definitely going out on Tuesday night for an all-nighter!! Glad I stumbled across this thread or I may have missed it!!!