Re: [APML] Photographic help with the upcoming Gemini's

[Radu Corlan <rcorlan@pcnet.ro>]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Chris Schur wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> A meteor photographer I am not, and I hope to hone my skills with the
> upcoming Geminids in mid December.  As you may recall, I used my 28mm f/2.8
> lens and Konica 400 for gobs of 10 minute exposures pointing roughly east
> for two nights recently.  Got one sporadic.

> 
> So I ask all you meteor experts out there, What can I do different on the
> next run of meteors, to  increase my chances of success?  Faster film?
> bigger lens?  Rub a rabbits foot?  What's your "secret"?


Chris,

i think generally you get better meteor pictures with longer lenes (35 or 
50mm). Wide open if it's not too bad. If you have several cameras, it 
helps, of course. With a 28mm, even the bright meteors will only show as 
lines, which is not very spectacular. 

Faster film also helps if it's not too grainy - film with bad reciprocity 
is actually preffered if your sky is not very dark. Ideally, you should 
expose until you get some sky fog, but not a lot.  

I'm not a meteor person myself, but some people that do this regularly 
generally use 50mm f/1.8 lenses, wide open, and expose for 25-27 minutes
every half-hour (so they can keep track of each frames' time). The frames 
are a little dark for catching teh faintest meteors, but OTOH, the very 
faint ones don't look nice (they're just lines).

Definitely use several rabbit feet - otherwise the fireballs will pass 
just outside the field, or come while you crank the film ;-).

Radu
 
> 
> Novice meteor photographer,
> 
> Chris
> 
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> 
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-- 

-------------
Radu Corlan       Snail Mail: Bucuresti sect. 1, 
rcorlan@pcnet.ro  str. Argentina nr. 28, Romania

   You can still escape the "Gates" of Hell!   
                 Use Linux!                       


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