meteor shower

Perseids at OSP

 in Blog  tagged meteor / meteor shower / Perseid

The last night of the Oregon Star Party (OSP) was a day before the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, but close enough that we were seeing a bunch of them.  And that last night was pretty much clear of the smoke that had plagued us all week, so I set up a DSLR camera with a fast, wide-angle lens on a tracking mount to capture a few of them. The above photo is a composite of more than a dozen individual frames containing one or more meteor streaks.  The camera was pointed toward the constellation Perseus, which was […]

Geminids Meteor Shower: Best or Bust

 in Blog  tagged Geminids / meteor shower

The Geminids Meteor Shower is often one of the best each year.  The rate of meteors is high and they are relatively slow moving, thus giving you more time to see them.  Furthermore, since they happen in early December, the sky gets dark much earlier, so you don’t have to stay up very late to see them (especially good for young children).  And this year the peak of the shower (Dec. 13-14) falls near the New Moon, so the sky will be very dark. On the other hand, meteors are fun to watch in a relaxed, comfortable manner, while the […]