I’ve finally got through all my recent Perseids meteor shower images I captured in early August as they fell over the Badlands NP in South Dakota. As you view these images, please note that the rock formations in these are all illuminated by the larger-than-preferred moonlight falling over the landscape (the moon was at ~80% illumination). As a result, the meteors were not as bright, and not as many seen, as would have been seen if the moon was much “smaller”. But on the up-side, the moonlight did help to illuminate the landscape :o) Here are a few of my favorite images captured of the meteor shower:
All above images were captured using one of two setups I had running. Below, you can see the equipment used for these images. This set of images used a new lens I had just purchased for night sky photography, the Rokinon 14mm manual lens. I had heard this was a great lens for night photography and I am very pleased with it’s results. The stars appear quite circular, not distorted as can be the case with some lenses. And the colors seemed to be very nice. I think this is now my “go to” lens for night photography! :o)
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Rokinon 14mm, f/2.8 manual lens
- Bogen 3221 tripod with ballhead
- ISO 3200 and ISO 5000
- Aperture f/2.8
- Shutter 30 sec.
Using a second setup, I captured some vertical shots of the stars and night sky. I’ll share some of those images in another post.