Perseids Meteor Shower and the Milky Way

Milky Way

Thursday morning, three of us spent from midnight to 4 AM at the Stone Barn, photographing the Milky Way and the Perseids meteor shower.  The sky was mostly clear, although we did have some clouds move through around 2 AM.  Everybody photographed in different directions and despite that, and the number of meteors that appeared in the sky.  We all only got a few pictures show in the meteors.  One thing that did happen and required more constant attention than we gave it was that the lenses fogged up because of the moisture in the year.  Yes, I did not think of it, but I should've brought with us the hand warmers to wrap around the lenses.  Even so, it was an amazing night and between 3 AM and 4 AM, we had at least are probably more than 97 meteors appear in the sky..  Although the peak is passed, there is still the possibilities of seeing a number of meteors, this weekend, especially since at least Saturday night, the skies supposed to be clear.

Perseid Meteor

Perseid Meteor

Perseid Meteor

Perseid Meteor

 The picture below was taken by Jenna.

Perseid Meteor

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Perseid Meteor Shower, Supermoon, and Sunsets

Waxing Gibbous Moon

Be ready for a interesting evening and night time event this weekend.  On Sunday, August 10, 2014 though be the closest and largest full moon of the year.  The moon will rise at 7:34 PM and set at 6:52 AM, at my location.  There are many apps or websites to give you the exact time for your location.  It'll be a great time to get out and get pictures of the moon set against a background.  Also, the Perseid meteor shower will be starting to peak from August 11-13.  Normally, the bright moon changes the background of the sky from black to a much brighter sky, which makes it harder to see meteors.  However, there is one good caveat, the Perseid meteors have the largest number of fireballs of any meteor shower.  Because of this occurrence this could be an extremely beautiful event.  Imagine seeing a fireball in the light of the bright supermoon.

I will be out photographing moonrise and sunset on August 10, then go home and rest to return to my favorite spot after midnight to see if I can capture some fireballs.

Last evening, I went down to battleship Cove in Fall River to photograph the sunset.  Although I knew approximately with the sunset was going to happen, I utilize my iPad with PhotoPills and its augmented reality, which showed me exactly the location where the sun would set.  Besides the sunset, looking behind me was a 94% waxing gibbous moon shining over the hills of Fall River.

Harbor master boat meeting, fire Dept. boat at battleship Cove

The image below was from three photos that I blended together in Photomatix

Sunset at battleship Cove

The image below was from three photos that I blended together in NIK HDR Pro

Sunset at battleship Cove

Sunset at battleship Cove as a Silhouette

Although there are two's separate set of images that I post processed in Photomatics and NIK HDR Pro, personally, I like the one that was processed in Photomatics.  I also utilized Topaz Clarity And Detail to finish up the processing of all these photos.


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Perseid Meteor Shower Follow-Up

Perseid Meteor Shower

Saturday evening into Sunday morning was a great time viewing the Perseids meteor shower at the Stone Barn, Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, Dartmouth, Massachusetts.  The weather was great, the sky was crystal-clear and as you sat there watching the sky, bats were flying overhead and owls hooting in the distance.  One thing great about the Stone Barn is the fields are open, and there is minimal light pollution.  We saw a great number of meteors and watch then photographed from about 11 PM till about 4:30 AM, when nautical dawn was starting and we were losing visibility of the stars.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Again Sunday evening into Monday morning, we visited the Stone Barn to view the meteor showers.  At this visit, we started at 10 PM, but, finished at 2:30 AM, because clouds came in and and we were unable to view the stars.  There were more meteors in the previous night, but were harder to capture in camera, because the temperature fell more and the lenses fogged up.  I did not put hand warmers around the lenses, as I usually do in the colder weather, since the previous night, we had no problems with fogging of the lenses.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Perseid Meteor Shower

The next big meteor shower will be October 7-8, 2013, the Draconids.  The nicest part of this shower as it occurs after sunset and in the early evening rather than late at night.  Even though this shower peaks on weekday nights, since it is early, it should not make any problems with working the next day.