Mangos and Peaches

Traveled alone into the heart of the Everglades last night in a desperate attempt to escape the glow of the city lights. Found an area off the road where there was nothing to see but the flickering of stars against the blackness of space. Set-up the camera on a tripod and pointed it skyward. The shutter was set to bulb mode and the ISO was alternating between 400 & 800. Then came the hard part which was sitting back with my iPod watching as the Perseids Meteor Shower crossed the sky. It’s not everyday that there is a planned meteor shower to I took advantage.

I managed to get only 1 decent shot of the meteors crossing the sky. I think I was a little unlucky since there was an absurd amount of the meteors visible from my location. I took my chances leaving the shutter open for 3 – 5 minutes at a time happening that one would cross the lens and that it would be bright enough to appear on the exposure. Unfortunately the majority were invisible to the camera and the high ISO means the longer the shutter stays open, the more noise appears on the image. At least I was able to take some pretty cool pictures of the stars out there.

For the curious, the Earths rotation combined with an extended exposure makes the stars appear as streaks across the sky in some instances. I had read about this effect, but this is the first time I experience it. Next time I’ll bring a film camera so noise becomes less of an issue.