star | PK PERSPECTIVE

Moneydie area, Perthshire: Friday 13th August 23:00

After being out with Sarah on Thursday and killing my 1st camera battery on the twilight shots, I returned home to find a posting on Facebook about the looming Perseid meteor shower. With my camera on my back and my tripod in my hand, I cycled to just outside Luncarty to get out from under the street lights.

One of the results from the shoot with Sarah

It wasn’t long before I started to see the meteors which were thick and fast. What I hadn’t accounted for was the randomness of where they were appearing. My wide angle lens just wasn’t wide angled enough!

I started to shoot a series of pictures at 30 seconds each which I wanted to make into a star-trail shot plus a time-lapse movie but was gutted when my camera gave in after just 10 minutes. With no backup cell I packed up and headed home, safe in the knowledge that the events were going to be repeated the very next night.

Repeated behind a layer of cloud!!!

The night wasn’t a complete flump as the 20 minutes of shots I took were combined into the orange picture you see below. I also made a short movie of the sky.

Orange master? For sensitive skin!

I have been wanting to attempt the technique of star trails for a long time now and always seemed to find an excuse to not stand out in the cold at stupid-o-clock in a field for 3 hours. Last nights sky went from being very overcast to incredibly clear in the matter of an hour so I grabbed my mate Darryl straight after work and headed out to an area we had checked out the week before.

Star trails above Perth

Darryl shoots with an old 35mm Olympus OM10 (brilliant piece of kit) and I was out with the D200. He borrowed my old tripod with one wonky leg but it still works a treat.

We were both using BULB mode in order to keep the shutter open as long as we wanted and used my watch to keep tabs on the length of the exposures. The major benefit of Darryl’s camera is that it doesn’t need battery power to operate, and after an hour my 1st battery had died on me.

The hardest part of this whole affair is composing a shot in complete darkness so it’s best to let your eyes adjust to your surroundings before starting.

For me the most surprising factor was how little noise my camera gave off considering the lack of light and the length of time the shutter was open. This almost makes up for how crap the D200 is at Infrared shots (grrrr @ Nikon).

Camera settings (pic on right):
ISO: 100
Aperture: F11
Shutter: 15mins
Manual focus

There is a great guide to taking these shot at THIS WEBSITE.

We will be going out again when we get the opportunity with a better foreground setting – watch this space!

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Take 2 meteors into the shower? Not me!

Star trails above Perth