Guide to photographing meteor shower phenomenon

Unlike other astronomical phenomena such as Eclipse, Moonlight, or Comet - Meteor shower is a phenomenon that occurs quite often and is very interesting for those who have never been observed. But unlike the eclipse and the real moon, meteor shower requires high equipment and skills to be able to capture it, sometimes it is also luck, so despite appearing many times a year But the beautiful images of Meteor Meteor appear less than the phenomena of eclipse, Moonlight, which is less common.

In today's article we will provide you with basic knowledge and tips so you can capture this difficult phenomenon.

Meteor shower is an astronomical phenomenon that takes place with a lot of steam.

1. Understand the nature of the supernova's appearance and meteor shower

The simplest meteor is that it is extraterrestrial objects that fall into the atmosphere, burned completely by the surrounding compressed air with high temperature and pressure created by itself during the falling process. Unlike meteorites, meteors burn out completely in the middle layer without any fragments left to fall to the ground. The main object of supernovae is usually debris that falls from comets, small meteorites floating in space or similar objects. When a comet has orbits across Earth's orbit, each year at that location, the Earth will sweep through the dust left by the comet and it will create a meteor shower.

2. The time and direction to observe the meteor

For a chance to reach the most meteor, no matter where you live on Earth, wait after midnight on the maximum days, keep your eyes covered with the sky but head to the constellation of focus. Why? The supernova falls most when the Earth passes through the center of the comet dust, and when it falls it is not in any particular direction. The time after 12pm at the place you are standing is the time that the comet dust is most exposed and fastest to Earth's atmosphere, so it is good to admire the quantity and quality of the meteor at this time. Best.

3. Request a meteor shooting device

Shooting meteor is a game of chance. Called meteor shower but even the classic meteor shower like Perseids, the density at the maximum time is only 2-3 stars / minute, not to mention the many meteor stars beyond their observation. we should be observed with a meteorite density of 2-3 minutes to be considered lucky. It is because of such a long time that we want to capture, we must have devices that can open the shutter for a long time.

In order to capture beautiful meteor shower images, we must have devices that can open the shutter for a long time.

List of devices classified by capabilities and quality of photos:

1. Position 1 : DSLR cameras, Mirrorless cameras, film cameras with ultra wide-angle lenses (recommended to use lenses with a
2. Location No. 2 : Travel camera has been hacked with custom firmware like dslr, high-end travel cameras with M, P, Av, Tv modes.
3. Position No. 3 : Smartphone has the ability to adjust the speed, aperture, iso parameters when shooting.
4. Position 4 : Webcam is attached to a computer using specialized software to intervene capture speed.

An indispensable device is a tripod to hold the device firmly during shooting.

An indispensable device is a tripod to hold the device firmly during shooting. In addition, if possible, you should use a soft cord, infrared control for dslr, laptop and connection cord to control shooting parameters, see the live picture more conveniently. A thin cloth bag covers the device to avoid condensation during shooting. For the vast majority of people, an EQ stand with built-in dynamics or an electronic stand to move in a dynamic movement is a bit strange but if you have them, your photos shooting will be much more amazing, it will overcome the drag phenomenon caused by Japanese motion when shooting for a long time.

4. Shooting techniques

The principle for shooting meteors is to open the shutter for the longest time possible in the hope that a meteor will fall in time. Recommended shooting time ranges from 30 to 5 minutes depending on lighting conditions. The following is the sequence of shooting steps.

1. Adjust the camera and phone to full manual mode .For dslr turn the wheel to Bulb mode (if available) or M mode and then turn the bulb to adjust the bulb to be able to shoot for as long as you want.
2. Focus .To focus in such dark darkness, first turn off auto focus and anti-shake mode on the lens, turn on the camera's live view mode and zoom in full numbers to a bright star or a bright spot very far away and focus on it.For travel cameras or phones that cannot focus manually, focus first on an object that is very far away and then lock the focus.The purpose of all this is to set the camera to focus on infinity.
3. For DSLR or Microless , adjust the focus accordingly to get all the airspace there.Avoid objects such as people, lampposts or any strong light sources entering the frame.Arrange properly and lock the tripod tightly.Devices that do not have the optical zoom capability absolutely should not have digital zoom, choose the perfect frame as possible.
4. For DSLR and Mirorless , after focusing, the composition is done.Customize the following parameters:

1. For other devices, the same settings are available if available.Whether or not a shooting star falls into the picture depends on your luck and patience.
2. Tip: You should choose a fixed and beautiful shooting position as possible and only take it from the beginning to the end of the observation, the tripod to fix it so that when you finish shooting, you have a series of photos when piecing together will create a beautiful time lapse movie about the starry sky.Set the right parameters right the first time to avoid time-consuming tasks during shooting, sometimes you will miss a few stellar ones at times.Prepare a minimum of a spare battery or add a grip to it because long exposure is extremely battery consuming.When shooting about half a day, remove the card and replace another card or copy the data immediately to the computer to ensure safety, avoid the loss of unnecessary data due to unforeseen errors.

If your requirements are not high, show them off with friends and share them online.

5. Processing photos after taking photos

If your requirements are not high, show them off with friends and share them online, but if you are a sophisticated person and don't want your work to appear in public in the best way, then do more. the following:

Using computers with pre-installed photo editing software such as GIMP, ACDsee, Photoshop, PhotoStudio. Here I often use Photoshop software so I will talk about this software. Select the Raw files you feel best and put them in one place. Make sure the computer is installed with the latest Camera Raw. Usually the editing does not interfere much with the details of the photo because the meteor is a genre that should not be salted like portraits or daytime scenery. How things like color temperature, color saturation, and light balance are due to the editor's preferences.

The correction should be done here to eliminate the distortion caused by the lens, fix the darkening of 4 corners and the purple border appears in the bright stars. Mixing 2 JPEG images is exported from a RAW file with an exposure of -1Ev and + 1EV to increase the detail of the image. Reduce noise slightly and change the color to cool, use the clone tool to erase unwanted details. Finally, stamp your name on the photo with the time of the shooting location. A beautiful meteor photo comes from how you choose the composition and the direction of light, editing only enhances the quality of the image.