meteor Archives - Craig Rogers Photography

Perseid Meteor Shower 2021

13th August 202113th August 2021Craig Rogers

I have a great amphitheatre for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, a nice open terrace with a panoramic view North to East. It’s not the best location to photograph them, however, I set the camera up to capture 15 second exposures constantly for 3 hours whilst I lay on a sunbed in the warm night air with a beer or two and watched the skies. I occasionally moved the camera so that it would take into account of the movement of the constellation Perseus which is where most of the streaks are coming from and where the name Perseids is taken from.

Here is a composite photograph with the the first image used as the base photo and then any streak captured overlaid because of course, the stars move. The very bright streak in the bottom left looks more like an Iridium Flare from a satellite rather than a meteor. This is when the sunlight reflects off a satellite surface causing a bright flash that can last a few seconds.

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Perseids Meteor Shower 2018, But What Was The Other Object(s)?

13th August 201813th August 2018Craig Rogers

I posted a blog yesterday regarding This Years Perseid Meteor Shower and last night, it didn’t disappoint. There were some very bright slow-moving meteors shooting across the sky.

This photo is made up from 15 separate 15 second exposures taken from the front terrace of our Quinta up here in the hills. Just 15 photos, just goes to show how many meteors where in the sky. Some of the dimmer ones probably wouldn’t have been visible by the human eye.

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The Perseids Meteor Show Peaks Tonight!

12th August 201812th August 2018Craig Rogers

Every August we have the Perseid Meteor Shower which are tiny dust particles left behind from the Swift-Tuttle Comet last seen in 1992 (and won’t return until 2126!). They name Perseids comes from the fact that the meteors appear to come from the same area in the sky as the Perseus constellation. It’s a long shower that starts on July 17th and ends on August 24th. Overnight of the 12th and 13th August is the peak time.

Usually, you can expect to see between 60 to 100 meteors every hour if you have dark un-polluted skies. I have read that this year, you could expect to see up to 150 an hour! This is helped by the fact that last night was a New Moon, so tonight’s moon will have very little reflected sunlight, plus the bonus is that it will set at just after 9:30pm too!

Last year was a different story but I did get this disappointing shot, albeit with the Andromeda Galaxy in shot too!

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Another Geminids Meteor Shower Photo

14th December 201714th December 2017Craig Rogers

Further to my earlier post, here is another photo of the Geminids from last night.

This timeframe was earlier in the evening and is a capture from between 8:07pm and 10:05pm. A shot was taken every 20 seconds with an exposure of 15 seconds. This resulted in 562 photos, 23 of which you can see merged here. One shot is the canvas and another 22 shots with meteors. Yes, before you count, there are 22 meteors in this photo.

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Perseids Meteor Shower 2017

13th August 201712th August 2018Craig Rogers

The Perseids Meteor Shower is a yearly event in August as the Earth travels through the dust left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle as it orbits the Earth.

This year, the peak time was 1am on the 13th August, however, the bright Moon in the sky was going to wash out most of the visible Meteors and make photography a little tricky. Therefore, I decided to set the camera up and point North East towards the Perseus Constellation (where the shower gains it’s name) before Moon rise to capture some of the early starters.

The image below is the best of the bunch. If you look closely, you can actually see 3 Meteors that burnt up within this 20 second exposure. It’s amazing to think that these bright “shooting stars” are dust the size of a grain of sand!

What I love about this shot is not only is the Milky Way clearly evident, but also the Andromeda Galaxy is showing herself off too!

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Persieds Meteors - D810, AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm, f/3.2, ISO3200, 20sec - {Flickr Link}

Perseids Meteors from Mam Tor

13th August 20159th October 2017Craig Rogers

I have a fascination with the night sky and I think it’s all about seeing somewhere I’ll never get to visit. So, last night I dragged my other half to the Peak District and walked up the steep path to the summit of Mam Tor with reclining deck chairs, the D810 with 14-24mm and Tripod to watch and hopefully capture some of the meteors.

The Peak District is classed as a Dark Sky area, but to be honest, with the likes of Manchester and Sheffield not too far away, it’s not that dark hence the orange glow on the clouds. However, I’m pretty pleased with the outcome of this shot capturing 3 of the meteors in a 25 second exposure.

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Perseids Meteors with the Milky Way from the summit of Mam Tor - D810, AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm, f/2.8, ISO3200, 25sec - {Flickr Link}