Perseids Meteor Shower (& Aurora?)

This year's Perseids meteor shower will have no moonlight at all, because it is a new moon, which will obstruct the sun on the same day! The event will be very weather dependent, we need mostly clear skies for this, so watch the comments for updates. The event might move to the next night if weather is better. We also have prediction for a possibly major Aurora solar storm arriving that same night!

The meteors will appear to come out of the north-east, which is where we will be pointing our cameras. However, one can see meteor streaks all over the sky and oftentimes, they will be longest and brightest straight overhead.

You will need a camera with a very wide angle lens, anything from 10 to 18 mm full frame is optimal, but 20-24mm works, too. You can also use your fisheye lens, especially if you have a circular fisheye with a 180° view pointing straight up, which will make sure that you capture every meteor in the sky. If you have two cameras, bring them both, one could monitor the entire sky and/or for a timelapse, the other is for individual photos as needed, and it allows you to take some other photos as well, perhaps do a little light painting. And you can overlay all images to create a star trail, too.

Use your widest lens, point it towards north-east and up, but give it at least 30% foreground. If you include Polaris, the North Star, you will be able to align the meteors such that they appear to come out of the radiant point in the constellation Perseus.

Set your camera to 30 s exposure time (for wide lenses), use wide open aperture and then adjust ISO to get a good exposure (at f//2.8, you will need ISO 6400, at f//1.8 only about ISO 2200). Let it click away on auto-repeat, either with an internal or external intervalometer.

This is a late night event into early morning hours, which is the peak when Earth rotates into the center of the dust cloud. Bring lawn chair, a mat or blanket to lie down, look up and enjoy the show. Liquids and snacks are a good idea, too. The location will allow us to spread out nicely, with varying foregrounds.

Make sure to check in with the organizer and no guests, as always.