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HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH METEORS (Page 2) note: you can click any of the images for larger versions of them V. What Direction to Shoot If you don't have any particular landscape/landmark you want to include in your image then you probably want to shoot whatever direction gives you the best shot at catching a meteor. Meteors are random events but you can do a few things to increase your chances. For the major meteor showers it is best to have the radiant of the shower on the edge or corner of your camera's view. There will often times be a lot of small meteors visible near the radiant and occasionally some brighter ones. If I am only interested in catching a fireball then I change my strategy. I will swing my view further away from the radiant and maybe down a bit towards the horizon. Also, fireballs/earth grazers tend to occur most frequently when the radiant of the meteor shower is low on the horizon. I have seen several nice fireballs with the radiant completely below the horizon. Also, keep in mind that if you're shooting straight up you're shooting a smaller area of sky than if you were shooting lower towards the horizon. I do like to shoot straight up though because the sky is cleaner (less thick) and so shooting straight up (90 degrees) the images are better/cleaner than if you are shooting towards the horizon. I usually shoot at about a 45 degree angle (halfway between the horizon/0 degrees and straight up/90 degrees). This seems to give the best function of coverage area and image quality. My favorite direction to shoot is north. At 45 degrees shooting due north you can really increase your exposure times and not have the star trails be so annoying (and in fact quite appealing). VI. Fake Meteors After you begin looking through your images you may spot several things that may first appear as meteors but are not. Here are some of the common "fake meteors" 1. Lightning Bugs
- Here are a couple examples. The continuous yellow
color and bent or curved path are quick ways to know that you
caught a firefly. 2. Iridium Flares/Satellites - There are hundreds of man made objects up in space and many of these are easily visible. Some may not be visible to you but your camera picks up them. Typically satellites are easiest to be identified by the path length/brightness. Iridium flares and all other satellites visible in the night sky are lit only by sunlight reflecting off of them. Therefore, most all satellites that you will see will occur within 2 hours of sunrise or sunset. Between those times the satellites are still flying overhead but there is no sunlight available to illuminate them. There are a very few satellites that are so far out from Earth that they may be visible anytime during the night. I don't think that you will be able to see them with your naked eye and they will be very dim and barely noticeable even in the photograph. If you are shooting 30 second exposure the
satellite may not make it all the way across your view before the
next shot is taken. You can look at the picture before and after
to see if the line extends into either of those pictures and if
it does it is a satellite. Sometimes the satellite may flare
(quickly increase in brightness). Typically these are iridium
flares and they may be quite bright but there are many satellites
that flare up (just not typically as bright as the Iridium's).
Some of the ways to identify these are if the line continues very
far past the bright spot and if the flare line brightens and dims
and does so at a constant rate. Some satellites are quite
difficult to easily identify and it may be best to think about
the way a typical meteor looks in a photograph to know what it
is. Some of the satellites are mostly invisible but then have a
short sometimes bright flare and then go away...often times if
you look farther down either direction of the trail you may be
able to see another identical trail thus you know its a
satellite. Another way to differentiate between satellites and
meteors is that meteors often times have color visible in their
path while satellite don't. Satellite trails will be just white
light. Once in a while a satellite may pick up a reddish tint.
This will likely just barely be noticeable and is caused by the
last few minutes of sunlight striking the satellite (its
basically being illuminated by sunsets). I have only ever seen
this personally with the ISS. Once you have caught several
meteors you will be quick to know what is or isn't a meteor. Here
are some of the various satellites/iridium flares I have caught: 4. Airplanes and Helicopters - Airplanes and helicopters are pretty easy to identify. They usually appear as path of alternating colored light. Like satellites they are most common within 2 hours of sunset and 2 hours of sunrise but can be seen anytime. Helicopters tend to be much lower than airplanes thus the lights are typically much brighter. You probably couldn't be fooled into thinking an airplane or helicopter is a meteor so that's enough about that. 4. Lens Flares - If you are shooting near a road or in a city you can sometimes get reflections off the lens (from headlights, streetlights, and light source etc) that may appear in the photograph. You can get all sorts of trails, lights, colors, etc this way. If you look closely you can usually see the difference between it and a meteor. If you are curious about what object is flying overhead or if you want to take a picture of one (its good practice for meteor photography) there are a couple great sites that give predictions on many of the most interesting and bright satellites including the ISS. VII. Real Meteors Most of the meteors you catch will be very
faint. I have found the best way to find them (if not outside
with the camera the whole time) is to just scroll through the
pictures (I just use the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer) and
meteors will usually pop out when comparing previous and next
images. I usually click through the images about as fast as
possible. It may take some time to get used to this. Brighter
meteors will be easily visible no matter how you look for them.
Here are some examples of bright meteors (in fact the three on
the left side were all great fireballs and visible over several
states): Here are some examples of dimmer more typical
meteors: VIII. Smoke Trails If you are outside and notice a bright
meteor/fireball that's not in your view you may want to swing
your camera that direction and see if you can pick up on the
meteor's smoke trail. It may be disappointing to miss a great
meteor but the smoke trails can still be interesting. It's also
nice to have something to show for witnessing such a spectacular
sight! Here is an example IX. Issues There are some issues that can really put a wrench in your meteor photography. The main problem I have encountered is lens fogging. You lens can become fogged up either by having it in a cold house and then taking it out into the warm moist air or sometimes (usually in the morning) the lens will quickly fog up about the same time that real dew/fog begins developing (for me during the summertime dew is just about a daily occurrence). I have tried numerous tricks to battle fogging. You can buy stuff to put on your lenses but don't do that...if you want to try it get some sort of filter and put it on that so you don't mess up the lens. In extreme fogging scenarios (usually when real fog is or eventually develops) not a lot works. You can try warming towels in the dryer and wrapping them around then lens but if your not at your house you can try just wrapping a towel, sock etc tightly around it even without warming it and that should hold fogging off for a bit. A lot of the time you may just have to wipe the lens off every few minutes but be careful to not mess up the focus! If you live in a dark sky site and have a window or door without a screen you can actually shoot through it. You will have to have all the lights off in the room and outside for this to work but it eliminates the fogging issue and keeps the camera out of the weather. X. Success & Patience Don't wait until a meteor shower is going crazy to try meteor photography for the first time. You could miss that one fireball while you are trying to figure out the settings that work best for you. I would advise going out a night or two before the peak and attempt a few shots to get an idea of what you can do (settings wise) with your sky. While out shooting you may notice that the meteors are just not streaking through the part of sky your camera is looking at. I would not recommend moving the camera though. Be patient and eventually a meteor will fly through your little bit of sky. Sometime though that are times when the meteors do tend to congregate in one particular part of the sky (typically this is going to be close to a meteor shower radiant or anti-radiant but sometimes its not) ... keep alert for this and if you notice it then swing your camera that direction. Keep in mind that meteors are really random occurrences and even during the major meteor showers you can go many minutes or even hours between seeing good meteors. Don't give up. If you go out and just spend 5 minutes shooting don't expect to see anything and you may stay out all night and still not catch anything but don't give up! If you stay patient and continue to try you will eventually be rewarded. Typically, shooting for several hours is a minimum to have a chance at success, though you could walk out and catch a great meteor on your first shot (it's happened to me!).
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