METEOR SHOWER PHOTOGRAPHY USING YOUR DSLR

I am sure many of you would ask...

“Why photograph a meteor shower?"

You might argue that:

"Nothing can replace the thrill, or experience, of witnessing a bright meteor shower. Seeing an event like this is an experience of a lifetime. Watching fireballs in the sky with your own two eyes, while being wrapped in blanket, on a cold winter night, drinking hot coffee or the beverage of your choice. This is an experience you should not miss”

OK. I get it. I have done that before. Both, summer and winter. Froze my feet in the winter and dripped in a puddle of perspiration in the summer. Gave blood to thirsty mosquitos. Lost valuable sleep time. Worst yet, I really did not see many meteors anyway.

So, I repeat:

Why photograph a meteor shower?

Because, it is easy, rewarding, lets you see many more meteors in a night then you would outside in the night, and you can probably do it with the DSLR you now own! All you need is to be PREPARED, be INFORMED and be LUCKY. Best yet, the camera records the meteors while you are sleeping.

This short article will help you in the "INFORMED and PREPARED" categories. You will have to supply your own LUCK. But remember that SUCCESS follows the LUCKY people that are both INFORMED and PREPARED. Two out of three gives you a head start.

Time for true confession… I started photographing meteor showers 30 years ago with an old, manual 35mm film camera, a manual focus 35mm lens and solid tripod. I learned the positions of the stars in the sky, became a student of astronomy and had “a very good day job” that afforded me the money to buy many, many, many rolls of 1000 speed Kodak film. After multiple trips to the one-hour photo processing counter in the local drug store, I got lucky a few times. Here is one of my favorite images from that era:

Now, I am not suggesting that you NOT go outside and watch a meteor shower. I am just saying, why not put you DSLR on a tripod and photograph one? Pixels are free. Maybe the first time you do this you will want to be outside with your camera. For me, the event takes place while I am sleeping.

***By the way, here is a "helpful - financial" tip for all of you married photographers... tell your spouse that by using your DSLR equipment for meteor photography you are actually amortizing the cost of your equipment and increasing the return on your investment. Hey, it worked with my wife! Give it a try!

Your first few images may not be great works of art. They will not win you a scholarship at the astronomy department of ASU. They will not get you a job at NASA. However, don't be discouraged. It takes some practice (AND LUCK) to get some keepers.

Here is what you need to do to start-

Check out the time and date for the shower in your area. Each one is different. The internet is a good research tool for that.
Find out where the Moon will be that night to see if it will be in the way of your shot. Determine what phase the Moon will be on that night. If the Moon is full keep your camera in the bag. Watch a good movie. Nothing trumps a meteor shower more than a full Moon... except rain.
A few days before the meteor shower, take some practice images. Find a good range of settings for your camera, establish tripod height, learn where obstructions may be in your walking path so you do not trip at night when setting up. Make a few “dry runs” in the daytime and maybe one, or two at night to be prepared.
Decide if you want a foreground object or a star field in your frame. If you want a star field, learn how long your exposures can be before they drift. About 15-20 seconds is a good starting point. If you want an object in the foreground, then photograph the object during the day to get a feel for where your tripod needs to be.
Learn how to focus at night. In manual mode this can be tricky.
Try some of these settings and experiment with some of your own.

Start with an aperture of f/2.8 if you have a lens like that. If not, use the most wide-open lens you have. Keep your telephoto lens in the bag. Go wide and fast for this type of photography.
Take test images with different shutter speeds and bulb speeds.
Experiment with different ISO settings from 400 to 4000. Turn off Auto ISO.
Try setting the white balance to 4000° Kelvin. Turn off Auto white balance.
Pay attention to where your tripod needs to go. How high is it going to be? How low will it be? Where do the legs go? Is it level? Will you need anything else at night to get set up? Get this out of the way in the daytime so you won’t be making those decisions the night of the storm.
Turn off the Autofocus – Be on Manual for everything.
Shoot both RAW files and JPGs if you can.
Use an intervalometer or set your DSLR to that setting. Make your interval about 1 or 2 seconds longer than your bulb time setting. Set it for 9999 images. That way the camera will fire an image, stay open for the time you select, close the shutter and almost instantly take the next image. That will go on all night until the next morning.
You will need a large capacity memory card. You will wind up with hundreds of images this way. Most will be deleted. You might just get one, or more, Keepers.
You will need extra batteries or an A/C – D/C power supply

All of this falls under the categories of PREPARATION and INFORMATION.

You will not know when the exact moment will come when meteors will shoot across the sky. That is why your camera needs to be firing all night long. That is the DUMB LUCK part.

Once you know that everything is working you can go to retire for the night. Get a good night sleep because you will have hundreds of bad photos to look at the next day to get that one good image. GOOD HUNTING.

Here is a list of dates for meteor showers this year...

Meteor Showers of 2022