Post by Andy Mac on Aug 13, 2008 5:24:09 GMT
Novel? Yes - because there's not a single friggin' meteor to be seen in either stack! [smilie=hate-mad.gif]
I originally set up at around 2am when there was a clearish gap in the clouds and the Moon was well out of the way. As expected, once I'd got the AstroTrac polar aligned & camera mounted, in came the cloud again. However after a few minutes, the clouds realised that I wasn't going to budge so decided that a little bit of light rain would do the trick - which it did! [smilie=hate-mad.gif]
Anyway at about 3.30am as I was about to turn in, I had a quick peek outside again.
Clear as a bell!
So I set up (rather wearily this time) & decided to point the 50mm camera lens to the east as the Pleiades were riding high as the time approached 4am. I took four 4-minute (or so) shots at f5.6 & saw three bright meteors whiz by. Only trouble was that they all headed north or north-west - so my camera failed to pick up any. [smilie=hate-mad.gif]
Then with the sky brightening in the east I pointed the camera over towards Cygnus & took another six 4-minute each exposures. Again, I caught bugger all!
However as I took the shots I might as well post them anyway. The first is a reminder that M45 is definitely on its way back to us for its winter showing.
And despite the lack of meteors, it was fun to observe several bright ones in the space of about 45 minutes.
BTW there is a gradient in each pic. I tried to purchase the X-Terminator package, having used up my trial period but kept crashing PS in the process. I'll have a look later today once I've had some kip & try a bit more careful processing too.
First non-meteor stack towards Taurus
Second non-meteor stack towards Cygnus
I originally set up at around 2am when there was a clearish gap in the clouds and the Moon was well out of the way. As expected, once I'd got the AstroTrac polar aligned & camera mounted, in came the cloud again. However after a few minutes, the clouds realised that I wasn't going to budge so decided that a little bit of light rain would do the trick - which it did! [smilie=hate-mad.gif]
Anyway at about 3.30am as I was about to turn in, I had a quick peek outside again.
Clear as a bell!
So I set up (rather wearily this time) & decided to point the 50mm camera lens to the east as the Pleiades were riding high as the time approached 4am. I took four 4-minute (or so) shots at f5.6 & saw three bright meteors whiz by. Only trouble was that they all headed north or north-west - so my camera failed to pick up any. [smilie=hate-mad.gif]
Then with the sky brightening in the east I pointed the camera over towards Cygnus & took another six 4-minute each exposures. Again, I caught bugger all!
However as I took the shots I might as well post them anyway. The first is a reminder that M45 is definitely on its way back to us for its winter showing.
And despite the lack of meteors, it was fun to observe several bright ones in the space of about 45 minutes.
BTW there is a gradient in each pic. I tried to purchase the X-Terminator package, having used up my trial period but kept crashing PS in the process. I'll have a look later today once I've had some kip & try a bit more careful processing too.
First non-meteor stack towards Taurus
Second non-meteor stack towards Cygnus