Draconids Meteor shower

[Peterj]

Peaking Tues 10/8 - to early am Wed 10/9.  I sent this to my photo club - thought it might interest you.

All, Tuesday evening 10/8 until early Wed am 10/9 the Draconids meteor shower will peak in the Tucson area. The weather report is favorable.
The moon shouldn't present too much of an issue for viewing and photographing. Twilight ends at 7:20pm; the moon will be in the opposite direction 150 degrees and relatively low 34 degrees elevation; it stays about the same elevation until 11:00pm and then starts to set.

Times are MST
            

Best practices for capturing a meteor shower:
• use a tripod - consider extra weight on center post
• fast wide angle lens 14 – 28mm
    ◦ not a fish eye
• know how to set your focus manually
    ◦ low light won’t enable auto focus
• use manual settings – capture raw
• remote shutter release or 2 sec delay
• red headlamp because white ruins your night vision for ~15-20 minutes
• use intervalometer or time delay setting on camera
• turn off long shutter noise reduction
    ◦ expose 1 shot of your lens cap to use for post processing noise reduction
• calculate max shutter speed – time = 500 / (lens focal length x crop factor)
    ◦ essential to have pin point stars vs oblong
• plan to set up about 30 minutes prior to actually taking pics

[pontiac1940]

Thanks for the heads up Peter.
We've stayed up late for a couple of meteor showers before and they have been flops.
Would love a photo of a meteor shower. 
Clive

[Peterj]

One aspect that might not be apparent is timing - one needs to set the camera to take MANY captures while enjoying the time to view the event.

Larger sensor cameras outfitted with a fast wide angle lens can use a much longer exposure time than can bridge cameras while keeping stars as pin points.

Remember to turn off Long Shutter Noise Reduction because it doubles the exposure time.

[Peterj]

I failed to capture a meteor during Draconids Meteor Shower (total 781 images captured), but I decided to experiment with the results.

I combined the first series (157 images) with 2 programs: 1)Photoshop Elements with Elements+ plugin & 2)StarStax a free stand alone program.

Each image details: ISO 1600, f/2.8, 2 sec

I think Elements+ did a better job: 1) noise was reduced & 2) foreground color is more vibrant.