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(meteorobs) Re: photos of perseids

Ulrich,

As others have stated I would save your 3200 film for the Leonids this
fall. Use the Kodachrome 200 for the Perseids and save the fast film for
moonless nights. 

If the lens produces distorted images at the edge of the field tracking
will not help. You will have distorted dots instead of streaks. Stopping
the aperture down slightly may solve this problem. 

Let us know your results!

Clear Skies,

Bob Lunsford



> Ulrich Beinert wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> thanks for all the responses so far! I think I have to answer a few
> questions at this point.
> 
> My primary goal is to get aesthetically pleasing images. Hard with the
> Moon shining, but the goal ist to have some pretty pictures of
> meteors.
> 
> Bob is thinking along the right lines, longer exposures are better.
> I'm doing this with so many cameras because I want to increase the
> likelihood of catching a meteor, not because I have film to burn. I'm
> a high-school student with a love for astrophotography and especially
> meteors, which is why I'd like to capture them on film. In fact, I
> have only 5 rolls of T-Max 3200 and 5 rolls of Kodachrome 200 (also
> said to be OK for meteors), so that's enough for two nights if I
> expose between 5 and 10 minutes.
> 
> However, getting to what Bob said - equatorial tracking would be
> better - if I do track the cameras, I will be able to see the
> distorted stars in the edges, which doesn't look very nice (I did that
> before).
> 
> Maybe a "compromise" brought about in part due to the moon would be
> mounting the cameras on the equatorial drive, stopping down to f/2.8,
> still using ISO 3200 film and exposing for 5-10 minutes, far away from
> the Moon? Stopping down reduces vignetting and distortion, but reduces
> the amount of meteors captured, however allows me to expose longer.
> Besides, I've only used 200 and 400 speed films in the past, so 3200
> should capture many more meteors than I'm used to, even if the lens is
> sopped down one and a half stops. What do you think?
> 
> Ulrich
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