(meteorobs) Fisheye lens misunderstanding and photography update

[Thomas Ashcraft]

A month ago I asked about fisheye lenses for meteor photography and got 
some excellent advice here. Thank you.

Here is a brief update;

For the Leonid peak I rented a 15 mm Canon fisheye lens to mount onto a 
Canon T1i DSLR camera. I did not understand what I was getting at the 
time as I thought a "fisheye lens" would give *all-sky* coverage from 
horizon to horizon. In fact, the 15 mm lens was merely a wider field 
lens.  Apparently, you need a 2 mm or 3 mm fisheye lens to get all-sky 
coverage.  I am still researching this subject.

Also, the 15 mm Canon fisheye lens tended to cause the meteors I 
captured to have a spiral look rather than be straight line. I think 
this is called aliasing.

Since the Leonids I have been operating my camera in continuous 15 
second shooting mode in the evenings from around dusk to 10:30 PM. The 
18-55 mm kit lens that came with the camera seems to be a pretty good 
lens all in all. It shows the meteors with good detail so far although I 
have only captured five or so meteors the past month.

Thomas Ashcraft
New Mexico