Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Starry Morning


I set the alarm for 4:30 this morning (only an hour earlier than I get up anyway), bundled up and took the camera and table tripod outside to the south yard.

The dark sky makes it impossible to see what the camera is pointed at, so I just pointed the camera in some general direction and took a few 30-second and several 60-second exposures.  The only way to get a picture of a shooting star is to have an exposure going that a shooting star happens to go through.  I used the self-timer in order to eliminate the camera shake that I add when I push the shutter button.   All of the 60-second exposures show some movement of the stars, caused, I think, by the movement of the world. (Slow down, you move too fast...)

Here's a 30-second shot that shows Orion in the lower right corner. In the hour I was outside, I saw about 10 shooting stars.  Unfortunately, none went through the camera frame, so this is all you get!

2 comments:

  1. Have to put that on my to-do list for next August. I've never done it. My daughter and her friend slept out on the trampoline this summer, but the night was too overcast and they really didn't see anything. A friend and her son had a good show the night before...

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  2. There are several other meteor showers through the year. I think you can google "annual meteor showers" or something like that to get a list.

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