Camera Labs

Hey,

Coming up un the new future are the annual Perisades Meteor Shower (peak on the 12 here in Canada). I am pretty new to astro photography, so I was wondering if anyone could lend some advice as to what equipment would help and how I could get some good shots of the showers.

Currently I have a 40D with lenses varying from ultra-wide angle (10mm) to ultra-telescopic (400mm or 640mm with my 1.4x extender). Previous attempts have produced poor results; either lots of noise (and no real discernible stars) or just black photos. Most of my attempts were taken at wide angle at an (aperture of 3.5 to 22) still with very poor results (all photos taken on a tripod). I dont know what I am doing wrong, please help.

Thank you for any help,

Greg

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Canon EOS 40D; EF 300mm F4.0 L IS USM; EF-S 10-22mm F3.5-4.5 USM; EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF 100-400 mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM, Canon Speedlite 580EX II, Canon G9

The trick is to take dark and flat to subtracts the noise. You can use a program like DeepSkyStacker to do the job.

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

Perseids? Anyway - wide field lens, on bulb setting, remote shutter controller, lowish f# 4.5 or less, ISO 800 and point a little away from the radiant - not directly AT the radiant. If the shower is reasonable you'll see where to point the camera anyway. From memory (could easily be wrong therefore) I think the Moon might not be too helpful this year - so even if the display is good, the biggest light polluter in the sky will spoil it all.

Greg

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Nexstar 11 GPS, 2 x Sky 90, M25C, MaximDL, Photshop CS3, Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions, 7 foot Pulsar fibreglass dome, Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 28-200mm zoom lens, 17-55mm f#2.8 zoom lens, 100-400mm zoom lens, 1.4x converter, 2x converter.
http://www.newforestobservatory.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801949@N02/