Tuesday, November 17, 2009

My Attempt at Capturing the Leonid Meteor Shower

I am planning to wake up early tomorrow morning (or possibly not go to sleep at all) at around 2.30 - 3.00 am to head outside for my first attempt at astrophotography. The Leonid meteor shower is expected to happen in the night sky above Malaysia around 3.00 am to 4.00 am and I am planning to find a place where the sky is clear with less light pollution to point my camera up towards the constellation of Leo and/or the North Star to try to capture some of the light streaks from the meteor.

I have read some tips online on how to photograph meteor showers and it seems like it's not as simple as I thought it would be. Based on my readings, I'm going to try the following setup:

Setup 1:
Exposure: 30 seconds
ISO: 800

Setup 2:
Exposure: 10 seconds
ISO: 1600

Setup 3:
Exposure: 1 minute or more.
ISO: 400

All the above will be done using my kitlens set at 18mm and f/3.5. I will try at least five consecutive shots using Setup 1 and ten consecutive shots using Setup 2. These will be shot in NEF and possibly be blended together in post-processing.

Setup 3 will be used if the sky is really clear with minimal light pollution, but seeing as I will be attempting to make these shots in Putrajaya, Setup 3 might probably be used just for experimental purpose.

If  I can secure a 50mm f/1.8 lens from my friend, then I'm going to try the following setup:

Setup 4:
Exposure: 20 seconds
ISO: 400

Setup 5:
Exposure: 10 seconds
ISO: 800

Setup 6:
Exposure: 5 minutes
ISO: 400

I will try to do at least five consecutive shots using Setup 4 and ten consecutive shots using Setup 5. Setup 6 if the sky is really clear.

I'm really hoping to get some good shots tonight. If I get any I will definitely put them up here.

Wish me luck ok!

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