Geminid Meteor Shower

[ssick92]

Hey everyone,

So last night was supposed to be the brightest meteor shower of the year. I used this opportunity to try and get a a night long exposure timelapse and hopefully catch some meteors. Well unfortunately, it was quite cloudy, and I only managed to catch 1 meteor on camera. I saw probably over 50 of the the brighest, most colorful meteors I have ever seen, but was not able to put it onto the camera sensor. Overall, it was a fun time, and a great learning experience for next time.

Hopefully I will be a in a better area with less surrounding lights. Although I was able to get out of the immediate city.

I put together a timelapse of the night also, link is below:
HD Geminid Meteor Shower Timelapse


Geminid Meteor Shower by jhelmuthphoto, on Flickr

 

[tektite]

Nice, so jealous it was totally cloudy here, I was really looking forward to this year's shower!

 

[ssick92]

Ya, I really wish the clouds would have been more forgiving, but they were pretty consistent

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[jroovers]

Nice shot regardless!

Wicked time lapse, can you provide some info on how you did it? What camera and lens/lenses? I was actually trying to look this up on the weekend (how to do one for the total beginner), but my son had other ideas! Is there any one link that you found gives a pretty solid overview?

 

[Ciscokid]

What kind of camera and lense?

What would be a inexpensive setup for a video camera to film the entire night?

 

[ssick92]

Nice shot regardless!

Wicked time lapse, can you provide some info on how you did it? What camera and lens/lenses? I was actually trying to look this up on the weekend (how to do one for the total beginner), but my son had other ideas! Is there any one link that you found gives a pretty solid overview?

Sure, sorry it took so long to get back to you. I got tied up in some things, and this forum is not my number 1 priority.

Anyway, I shoot with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR. Ever since I had purchased it about 2 months ago, I wanted to shoot timelapse shots. However, from all my research, this typically requires an intervalometer which can run from $50-$500. Thankfully, I came across something called Magic Lantern. Magic Lantern is a third party software that I installed on my camera for free which has tons of additional features built in to the software. It is very user friendly and easy to understand. Included in this software is an intervalometer. It also has a ton of features for video, and a bunch of stuff I don't use, but it also has a ton of things I DO use. Hit the Google machine to find out more about Magic Lantern.

So to make the timelapse I first placed my camera on a tripod, and set the intervalometer to take a picture every 1 second. However I made each picture a 20 second exposure. This means it would take a still frame picture [roughly] every 21 seconds. For astro shots you typically want the widest angle possible, which equals the smallest focal length possible. For me, I haven't purchased a dedicated super wide 8mm lens (which I am purchasing for myself for Christmas), so I used my 18mm-55mm Kit lens and just set it to 18mm. My ISO was set to 800 and my aperture was wide open at 4.0.

Throughout the night I went to a couple different places, and set up for about 2 hours at each location. I ended up with around 1000 photos total of the night. I then imported the different segments as image sequences using Premiere Pro. I added some small position, scaling, and time remapping effects and finally exported to what you watched.

I mainly just watched youtube videos to learn how to put together the timelapse image sequence, but once you understand that then it is very simple to do. If you want to learn more about astrophotography, I started here and it gave me a lot of good advice: Astrophotography Tips

If you have any more questions feel free to ask, but I am not an expert.

What kind of camera and lense?

What would be a inexpensive setup for a video camera to film the entire night?

I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR. I have a few lenses, I have the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera, a Canon 100mm EF f/2.8 macro lens, and I have a Tamron 75-300mm lens as well. For these shots I used the 18-55mm at 18mm.

I can't tell you anything about video cameras, but I think you can get a base model DSLR setup for around $600-$700 dollars. You might even be able to get a Point & Shoot camera that will do timelapses for much cheaper, however the quality will be lacking. The thing is you don't use a video camera to do timelapse shots. Instead, you use a regular still frame camera and just take pictures at regular intervals. These intervals can be every 1 second, or every 2 hours. It all depends on how long/fast you want the timelapse to be.

-John

 

[jroovers]

Sure, sorry it took so long to get back to you. I got tied up in some things, and this forum is not my number 1 priority.

Anyway, I shoot with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR. Ever since I had purchased it about 2 months ago, I wanted to shoot timelapse shots. However, from all my research, this typically requires an intervalometer which can run from $50-$500. Thankfully, I came across something called Magic Lantern. Magic Lantern is a third party software that I installed on my camera for free which has tons of additional features built in to the software. It is very user friendly and easy to understand. Included in this software is an intervalometer. It also has a ton of features for video, and a bunch of stuff I don't use, but it also has a ton of things I DO use. Hit the Google machine to find out more about Magic Lantern.

So to make the timelapse I first placed my camera on a tripod, and set the intervalometer to take a picture every 1 second. However I made each picture a 20 second exposure. This means it would take a still frame picture [roughly] every 21 seconds. For astro shots you typically want the widest angle possible, which equals the smallest focal length possible. For me, I haven't purchased a dedicated super wide 8mm lens (which I am purchasing for myself for Christmas), so I used my 18mm-55mm Kit lens and just set it to 18mm. My ISO was set to 800 and my aperture was wide open at 4.0.

Throughout the night I went to a couple different places, and set up for about 2 hours at each location. I ended up with around 1000 photos total of the night. I then imported the different segments as image sequences using Premiere Pro. I added some small position, scaling, and time remapping effects and finally exported to what you watched.

I mainly just watched youtube videos to learn how to put together the timelapse image sequence, but once you understand that then it is very simple to do. If you want to learn more about astrophotography, I started here and it gave me a lot of good advice: Astrophotography Tips

If you have any more questions feel free to ask, but I am not an expert.




I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR. I have a few lenses, I have the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera, a Canon 100mm EF f/2.8 macro lens, and I have a Tamron 75-300mm lens as well. For these shots I used the 18-55mm at 18mm.

I can't tell you anything about video cameras, but I think you can get a base model DSLR setup for around $600-$700 dollars. You might even be able to get a Point & Shoot camera that will do timelapses for much cheaper, however the quality will be lacking. The thing is you don't use a video camera to do timelapse shots. Instead, you use a regular still frame camera and just take pictures at regular intervals. These intervals can be every 1 second, or every 2 hours. It all depends on how long/fast you want the timelapse to be.

-John

John, thanks for such a detailed repsonse. I'm going to look into Magic Lantern. I had read about an intervalometer and assumed I needed to purchase one to do time lapses, so glad I asked.

What 8 mm lens you thinking of? I'm assuming that is a prime lens? I have an 18-135 lens that I could use, or my 30 mm 1.4 Sigma. The lens I think I'm going to get for landscapes and wide angles is the 10-22, assuming I can find one at a relatively decent used price.

 

[ssick92]

The lens I am looking at is the Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens. Yes, it is a prime lens. It runs for about $300 on Amazon. The reason I am getting this one is mainly because of the budget. I have seen this lens firsthand and it performs very well for such a cheap lens. It is actually built with good glass elements, but it is a full manual lens. This means that the aperture and everything has to be done manually on the actual lens. Our DSLRs won't be able to adjust the aperture through the software. I believe this is the main reason why this lens is so cheap. That, and the fact that it is a fisheye lens...

You could use any of those lenses, but your 18-135 is probably your best bet for right now. The 10-22 is a good option too but remember that on our crop sensor cameras (assuming you don't have a full frame camera) we have to multiply by a factor of 1.5 (1.6 for Canon) to get the focal length on our APS-C cameras. So even if you are running your 10-22 at 10mm, it is really like running a 15 or 16mm. This is the main reason I tried to go as low as possible. My 8mm lens will run at 12.8mm which is still pretty wide angle. Although, getting a fisheye lens I will have to do some cropping to avoid too much distortion, but you gotta pick your battles I guess.