Leonid Photos

[Vidar]

Well, tonight starts the pass through the Leonids...any suggestions on
taking photos of the meteor shower?

[philo]

Vidar wrote:
> Well, tonight starts the pass through the Leonids...any suggestions on
> taking photos of the meteor shower?

get as far away the city (and it's lights)

as possible

[notbob]

On 2009-11-16, philo <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:

> get as far away the city (and it's lights)
>
> as possible

At 8000ft in CO Rockies, already there.

Things I would like advice on are how to take pics with point/shoot
digital camera with no B function. Also, how about temps. It's going to
be in the mid 20s (F) where I live and my camera is stainless steel.

nb

[philo]

I've never had a problem with my point and shoot in cold temperatures.

I assume you have a tripod.

Though the "B" function would be nice...try the longest exposure you can
get out of it...you will have to experiment of course

[Ofnuts]

You want to maximize the time the camera is "watching". Unfortunately
many (most? all?) numeric cameras, when using long exposure times, take
a "dark" shot of identical duration to spot the "hot" pixels and remove
them from the real picture (done by mere substraction). This means your
shutter would be open at best 50% of the time. It is sometimes possible
to disable this and so get closer to 100% coverage.

Once this is checked, use the longest exposure time. On my P&S, I can
use the burst shooting mode even with long exposures, for 3 photos in a
row, so I only have to press the trigger every 1:30 (actually 3:00
because "dark" shot cannot be disabled).

Things are a lot easier if your P&S can be controlled by wire
(AF+shutter) or even better by USB.
--
Bertrand

[notbob]

On 2009-11-17, Ofnuts <o.f.n...@la.poste.net> wrote:

> You want to maximize the time the camera is "watching".

Nothing of interest to watch. The Leonid is a snore, IMO. Watched sky
for over an hour and saw a couple wimpy scratches in the distant sky.
I've seen more action on a warm Summer's eve with just the occasional
glance over the horizon.

Now, the Perseids is a whole different ballgame. Dozens of
rocket-like comets flashing in from East to West like low level
straffing aircraft, creating brilliant, if short lived, trails from
horizon to horizon as they passed overhead. This in a semi-remote
valley near the light choked SF Bay Area. Granted, this was supposed
to be the most brilliant Perseids in decades, and it was, but it
totally spoiled me for any lesser event, of which the Leonid
definitely is.

nb

[Albert Ross]

On Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:39:19 -0800 (PST), Vidar <4vi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Well, tonight starts the pass through the Leonids...any suggestions on
>taking photos of the meteor shower?

Crash helmet <G>

Point your camera where you're not looking, the bastards always creep
up on you from behind.

[Albert Ross]

On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:51:35 GMT, notbob <not...@nothome.com> wrote:

>On 2009-11-17, Ofnuts <o.f.n...@la.poste.net> wrote:
>
>> You want to maximize the time the camera is "watching".
>
>Nothing of interest to watch. The Leonid is a snore, IMO. Watched sky
>for over an hour and saw a couple wimpy scratches in the distant sky.
>I've seen more action on a warm Summer's eve with just the occasional
>glance over the horizon.

I think it was the Leonids I saw, many many many years ago, out in the
wilds of Cumbria with a very dark sky. They weren't bright but there
were a lot of them. Never saw anything like as good a display since
(early seventies sometime)