Posted by John Moore on December 15, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Taken at 4:04 this morning. Not the brilliant meteor I was hoping for, but it will have to do until next time. I arrived around 1:30, set the remote timer to take repeated 15 second exposures, then crawled in the back of the vehicle for some shut-eye. I got up at 5 to discover the 16GB memory card was full (655 shots!), but the battery held out in the 35-degree air.
I saw one Geminid meteor fall overhead, and quickly fumbled around to put in a new memory card and battery. But as soon as that was accomplished I looked up to see that the clouds had moved in to cover up all the stars.
this looks really nice John. Great work. That 24mm f1.4 is probably pretty nice for stars.
Posted by Mike Hall on December 15, 2009 at 5:47 PM
Perfect! I like the way that you can see the mountain and the valleys. I hope to do the same tonight. Matt and I are heading to Flatside Pinacle later today for a little light painting and star trails.
Posted by Tom Kennon on December 15, 2009 at 9:03 PM
Nice catch, John, Forked Mountain gives the sky a great sense of scale.
Posted by Larry Fischer on December 16, 2009 at 7:57 AM
Very nice, John.
I would submit this to "spaceweather.com" As good, nay, I say better, than any I've seen posted so far.
The Geminids peaked at a high rate on Monday night about midnight. We were cloudy in Kansas.
At least you tried and got one. I see Orion.
That 28mm, f/1.4 at 1600 seemed to do well. Impressive, espeicailly in the corners.
the fisch
Posted by Isaac Szabo on December 16, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Nicely done, John. I agree that Forked Mountain was a great location for this.
Posted by Aaron Szabo on December 17, 2009 at 6:20 PM
The mountain adds a lot to this shot. I probably would have pushed the ISO to 2000 or 2500 to lower the shutter speed a bit, but it looks great here. I've always wanted to try to 24mm 1.4 on the 5D II...
Posted by Bill Dark on December 18, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Really very nice, John. I like the overall composition - everything seems to be well-balanced. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Randy Wilson on December 18, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Forked Mountain has a really distinctive profile and makes a good choice for a shot like this, and your strategy for capturing a meteor was sound and well thought out, especially the part about getting some shut-eye while your camera was happily taking pictures.
Even though the meteor part of the plan didn't work out like you wanted, you've still captured a lovely star image. The windswept clouds add to the shot, and I hate to say it, but isn't light pollution great?
I guess with the cloud cover you won't be able to stack the images for a star trails shot?
Posted by John Moore on December 18, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Randy, stacking the images might yield an interesting image, but I'm not up to the challenge of trying to combine that many shots! If I were going for star trails, I would have made exposures of 5 minutes and then stacked them.
Discussion
9 repliesI saw one Geminid meteor fall overhead, and quickly fumbled around to put in a new memory card and battery. But as soon as that was accomplished I looked up to see that the clouds had moved in to cover up all the stars.
Larger version
5DII, 24mm f/1.4, ISO 1600, 15 seconds
I would submit this to "spaceweather.com" As good, nay, I say better, than any I've seen posted so far.
The Geminids peaked at a high rate on Monday night about midnight. We were cloudy in Kansas.
At least you tried and got one. I see Orion.
That 28mm, f/1.4 at 1600 seemed to do well. Impressive, espeicailly in the corners.
the fisch
Even though the meteor part of the plan didn't work out like you wanted, you've still captured a lovely star image. The windswept clouds add to the shot, and I hate to say it, but isn't light pollution great?
I guess with the cloud cover you won't be able to stack the images for a star trails shot?