I took my camera and tripod out onto the back patio Sunday night in hopes of getting some falling star shots. Sunday night / Monday morning was supposed to be the peak night for this year's Perseid meteor shower, and we had clear skies. The moon set a little after midnight, so it was perfect. M.C. sat out with me for a while. We saw a couple meteors, but I didn't get a pic. She was tired and went to bed around 11:30. I stayed up with the intention of getting some pics. Long story short, I sat out there until almost 2am. Rather than seeing the 50-100 meteors per hour that were predicted to streak across the northeastern sky, I saw maybe 12 total in the 3+ hours I was out. And I didn't get a single pic of any of them. Most of them that I saw were in the northwest or southeast, so my camera wasn't aimed at them. I had 3 that were big and bright and streaked across the sky right where they were supposed to be, where I had my camera aimed. But I still didn't get a pic. I had the camera set on the tripod, and I was taking one shot after another. I was taking 30 second exposures. I had a 2 second timer set so that I could push the button to take a pic without inducing movement to the shot that would cause everything to be blurry. Every one of those 3 that shot across right where I wanted them appeared exactly in the 2 second intervals that I had between shots. What are the freaking odds of that?
So I sat out there taking two 30 second shots per minute for over 3 hours, and I got ZERO pics of meteors. What a butt kicking that was.
But then the next day I saw all the pics of the northern lights that people all over the place got, including people in the Panhandle and NE Texas. Russell Graves got some killer timelapse footage of the auroras that night. So I pulled my camera card and popped it into my computer. I did remember noticing a bit of a red glow in the northern horizon that night, but I never thought about it being the auroras. It did get more red later than it was earlier. It shows up better on the camera than it does in person. I didn't get any pics of the lights dancing around, but I did get some red glow. I wish I'd realized that was happening that night. I could have put my boots on and gone out into the pasture away from the trees to get a better view of the northern horizon. And I could have set my camera up to take timelapse pics all night long. I actually thought about doing that for the meteors, but I was disgusted and tired and just packed up and went to sleep.
Dang it! Almost!
So I sat out there taking two 30 second shots per minute for over 3 hours, and I got ZERO pics of meteors. What a butt kicking that was.
But then the next day I saw all the pics of the northern lights that people all over the place got, including people in the Panhandle and NE Texas. Russell Graves got some killer timelapse footage of the auroras that night. So I pulled my camera card and popped it into my computer. I did remember noticing a bit of a red glow in the northern horizon that night, but I never thought about it being the auroras. It did get more red later than it was earlier. It shows up better on the camera than it does in person. I didn't get any pics of the lights dancing around, but I did get some red glow. I wish I'd realized that was happening that night. I could have put my boots on and gone out into the pasture away from the trees to get a better view of the northern horizon. And I could have set my camera up to take timelapse pics all night long. I actually thought about doing that for the meteors, but I was disgusted and tired and just packed up and went to sleep.
Dang it! Almost!
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