Capturing the Perseids Meteor Shower August 2020

Perseids Meteor Shower Observation & Photo Capture

The Perseids Meteor Shower is one of the best of the year. It is already here but the best is yet to come. Start planning if you want to see or capture it.

Need To Know

When: July 17th through August 24th

Best Time: 11pm through 3am depending on the date selected

Peak Meteors Per Hour: July 11, 12 & 13th 45-57/met per hr

Where to Look in the Sky

Meteors will appear in north-northeast sky. As the earth turns the origin of the meteors will move in a small circle east & south (represented by the gray circle in the screen print). North is the top of this screen print.

The radiant or origination point of the meteor shower will be near the constellation Perseus in the northeast sky at a mid-northern latitude. The source of the meteors is the comet Swift-Tuttle. 

Checkout this EarthSky website for more detailed information.

Screen from https://stellarium-web.org. Top of image north. Perseids meteor shower will appear to be coming from the constellation Perseus. The constellation will move east as the night progresses. This screen represents August 17th at 2:00 am lloking North. The North Star, Polaris is the handle of Ursa Minor (lowest star in the formation). So, look for the North star and then move your eyes East to Perseus.

Practical Information

Unfortunately, during peak meteor nights, the moon will rise between midnight and 1 am the same time as the meteors start. Plus, the moon will be relatively close to the meteor shower ‘origin’ (just east). 

To make matters even more challenging, the moon will be waning gibbous at about 50%. This means a bright sky making it more difficult to see the meteors. Nonetheless the moon will not completely obscure the meteors.

Consider Plan B

Even though there will be fewer meteors later in the month, from August 16th through the 21st, the moon will be new (no) or less than 10% visible.

Check the weather forecast. Choose a night with no or few clouds predicted. Then head out to a dark sky location, get out your lawn chair and enjoy the show.

Happy meteor watching!

For Photo Enthusiasts: How to Photo Capture This Meteor Shower

PhotoPills is a great resource for learning how to photo capture meteor showers. Or, checkout my three part meteor shower blog.

In general here is the photo capture process.

1. Locate the Radiant or Origin. The night before the shoot look for the Perseus Constellation to get oriented (northeast sky). 

2. Gather Equipment. Preferably a camera with manual mode, a fast (f/2.8 to f/4) wide angle lens, a tripod, fully charged batteries (at least two), a high capacity memory storage card, a wired or wireless remote shutter release, a headlamp, a chair, and appropriate clothes and water/food.

3. Dark Sky Location. Identify a location with the darkest sky possible. In this case be sure you have a north-northeast sky view. NOTE: Arrive early to compose the shot. Take some foreground reference photos at astronomical twilight. You can use these later to merge with your meteor sky photos.

4. Framing the Shot. Frame the shot knowing the meteor shower radiant or origin point will move in the frame as the earth turns over time. Leave plenty of room towards the edge of the frame.

5. Focus. Find a star. Use the + button and zoom in. Manually focus until the star appears the smallest size.

6. Camera Settings. Before you start shooting; switch to manual manual, choose RAW file if you intend to do advanced editing later, turn High ISO Noise Reduction ON if you choose jpg files format, set ISO to 3200, set aperture f/2.8 or biggest available i.e. f/3.5, f/4), turn OFF long exposure noise reduction. Connect & program the remote shutter release to as follows: 35 second exposure time with 3 second intervals between each exposure. Plan to take photos for an hour or so.

General Field Workflow

Since you cannot know when the meteors will appear, you will be taking multiple exposures back-to-back at 3 second intervals between shots over a several of hours. 

Unless you have the PhotoPills app consider this workflow.

1. Take a test photo with the following settings; aperture f/2.8, ISO 3200 and a shutter time of 35 seconds.

2. Review the photo and check these things; 

3. Is the focus shop? Use the + button and zoom in. If the star is not small and sharp repeat the focus process.

   1. Are the stars oblong? If the stars are elongated the exposure time is too long. Decrease the time 3-5 second and repeat. 

   2. What does the overall image )or histogram) look like. Too dark? Increase ISO to 6400. Too light? Decrease ISO to 200 or 1600.

Got questions? Send me an email with your question. I’ll do my best to answer it or direct to a resource with the answer.

Good Luck.

Cheers,

Steve