Photography Event : The Orionids Meteor Shower : Cancelled due to cloud cover

The Orionids Meteor Shower

The Orionids meteor shower occurs every October as the earth passes through particles left by Halley's Comet on it's 76 year journey around the sun.

The Orionids appear to come from the constellation of Orion, but they can be seen over a large area of the sky.

They are known for their brightness and speed, travelling at around 41 miles per second, and can leave glowing "trains" (incandescent bits of debris in the wake of the meteor) which last for several seconds to minutes

The peak of the Orionids meteor shower in 2023 is expected to occur on October 21st and 22nd

In recent years around 20 or 30 visible meteors per hour are visible.

Resources

Stellarium is a free web based planetarium with loads of features.

Stellarium home page

Youtube link ... How to Photograph a Meteor Shower

Equipment

A tripod is essential

A torch (your phone will do). Please tape a red gel over the light to protect everyones’ night vision. A red sweet wrapper is fine

A wide angle lens if possible to capture as much of the sky as you can. Anything from 10mm to 35mm, 50mm can be used if you dont have anything wider

Also a lens with a wide aperture (f.2.8) is also preferable to let in as much light as possible, but we will work with whatever you have

Camera Settings

A good starting place for Astrophotography is to shoot in manual mode, ISO 1600-3200, a shutter speed of around 15-20 seconds, and the lowest (most wide open) aperture that your lens allows

This will involve some trial and error to begin with but you should find some good settings within a few minutes

If you haven't done this kind of photography before, there will be people that can help at the event

Timings

The constellation of Orion will be appear above the horizon at around 23.00, at the same time the moon will be setting giving us a dark sky.

Location

The Top of Box Hill.

Please meet by the cafe as we are not shooting from the popular viewpoint and will walk as a group to the shooting location.

Orion will be rising in the NorthEast around 10pm and we should get a good clear view from our location

As a bonus Jupiter will be nt he same area of the sky.

Payment

£10

Please pay at the meeting point