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Orion, Taurus & Pleiades
Geminid Meteor Shower 2012
| 5 imagesOn December 14th, 2012 the Geminid Meteor Shower reached its peak. I had seen meteor showers before, however I’d only observed them, never photographed them. This was my first shower to photograph, and the conditions were perfect. Usually there is a moon out, sometimes even a full moon, which can make photographing a meteor shower difficult. This year, we had a 1% new moon, so the skies were pitch black. I managed to get a few shots with good, bright meteors in them. The rate of hits was about 50 per hour or so in my zone, about one per minute, however in optimal zones they can reach upwards of 170 per hour, or several per minute!
I look forward to the next meteor shower I have a chance to photograph. There are obviously the Perseids, Orionids, and Leonids, however the Draconids, less known and periodic, are apparently quite a show, with as many as thousands per hour (dozen+ per second) when they show!
Nature Photography 
Beautiful. I’ve tried dark sky photography a few times without much luck. Write a tutorial! I’ll read it. 🙂
Sure! I can write up some astrophotography tutorials for my Knowledge Center. Might be a little while, but I’ll try to get one in for the milky way and for meteors before summer and before the next shower (I think the next major two are the Perseid and Draconids, both this summer.)
I’ve written up part one of a knowledge center article on photographing meteor showers here: https://jonrista.com/2013/04/27/exposing-meteors-brilliantly-part-1-preparing/. I’ll put together part two, the actual work of framing and exposing, soon!
Alrighty! Part two of this series (https://jonrista.com/2013/05/05/exposing-meteors-brilliantly-part-2-setup-exposure/) has been uploaded, with information on how to compose, how to expose, and how to maximize your hit rate! Hope this helps you in your own endeavors, Jamie. 🙂