Posted on 04/20/2021 8:07:25 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Here’s what you need to know about photographing meteor showers, shooting stars, comets, and other celestial wonders that force us to stay awake and outside when we’d otherwise be in bed.
You need a tripod
When you’re looking to capture something as momentary as a shooting star, you can’t trust the steadiness of your hands. Meteors sail overhead at blinding speeds, which means you need a tripod to take viable photos of them.
Use a wide angle lens
If you’re shooting with a camera, as opposed to a smartphone, Marotta describes the basic necessities for capturing as much of the sky as you can:
“You’re going to want to work with a wide angle lens, so anywhere between 8-16mm is going to capture as much of the sky as possible. Also, F stop is important. Try and bring a lens with an aperture of f/2.8, that way you’re not overcompensating with bumping your ISO.”
Use infinity focus
Another pointer Marotta recommends is setting your focus to infinity, which will broaden your camera’s depth of focus to its largest possible setting. The sky is big and vacuous, meaning you want to capture as much of it as possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifehacker.com ...
An infinity setting does not maximize depth of field.
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-fireball-meteor-report-april-19-2021/36164449
My wife was sitting next to me on the couch Sunday night and saw this streak across in the eastern sky. We are in south central NH.
0. You need a dark sky. That is increasingly difficult to come by.
Yeah. A friend has to drive quite a bit to get away from Atlanta’s light. I’m pretty much under perpetual cloud cover.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.