Perseid Show

August 12 2009 by Darrin.

Here are a few photos from the Perseid shower last night.  I got up at 0000 when it was predicted to be the best volume, though I must admit it was better viewing two hours earlier - before the 55% moon came over Sheep Mountain.  Both of the following were just dumb luck, with the Nikon on a tripod and an intervalometer shooting 30-second exposures once every 31 seconds.  ASA setting was 3200, lens at 28mm, f2.8.  Click on them and you’ll see the faint Perseids streaking across the images…

Before Anna went to bed, I told her it’d be very nice to have a shot of the AATREC, with a Perseid over it.  After shooting straight up for a while, I dropped the exposure time back to 20 seconds, and leveled out with the camera pointed at the camper.  The third out of 30 exposures yielded the following image.  Unfortunately, the camper is out of focus  The depth of field is just too shallow, with the lens focusing at infinity (for the sky) and the aperture at f2.8.  Still cool!

This post is also a date-stamp test for posting on the road.  I’m writing this at 1439 MDT on the 12th, but it should show up in the blog as being written at 0120.

Back to packin’…

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