Photographic observations of meteors, Perseids 2020

Hello everyone, Khabrovtsy!

Today I bring to your attention useful information about the technique of photographic observations of meteors. And I also want to talk about one very interesting event planned this year! The event is non-profit, anyone can take part!

Photographic observations are one of the important methods for studying meteors. They give the greatest amount of information about each meteor: position, speed and magnitude at any point on the visible trajectory.


Bright meteor from the Geminida stream, December 2017. (K. Radchenko)

Photographing meteors can be carried out with almost any camera mounted on a tripod. Ordinary, everyday cameras usually photograph bright meteors - fireballs with significant linear dimensions. The likelihood of photographing meteors increases when using cameras with fast lenses (relative aperture 2.8) and when using high-sensitivity film (250 units of GOST or more - ISO value on modern digital cameras).


Photographing Perseids on film, 2013. Matsesta, Eagle Cliffs, Sochi

It is desirable that the lenses for shooting meteors have a fairly wide field of view of at least 30-40 °.


Infographics are built for FF cameras, for cropped ones we recount respectively. their crop factor.

Long-focus cameras make it possible to obtain multi-informative photographs of meteors, which can be used to judge the physical characteristics of meteor bodies and the processes of their interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere.

With a sufficiently dark sky, the exposure time can be 30-60 minutes.

Examples of long-exposure photos in one shot:


Arabica massif, view from the Bamboyashta tract (2000 m. N. M.), Rep. Abkhazia, October 2017.
Single shot, cropped canon, 8mm, iso-100, F-5.6, exp. 99 minutes K. Radchenko.
Album: vk.com/album-101775783_250238426


Single shot: 23.3 minutes, F-3.5, iso-100. Canon 1100D, sigma 24mm f-1.8 The
night sky in Achmard (Abkhazia 700m.n.m., December 2017), K. Radchenko.
Album:vk.com/album-102254897_249492500 It is

best to photograph a region of the sky with a center having a zenith distance of 30-40 ° (viewing angle around the zenith, a point above your head). Then the observed area in the meteor zone, and therefore the number of recorded meteors, will be several times larger than when photographing the near-zenith area.

Photographing an area of ​​the sky near the horizon is ineffective, since the meteors observed there are very far away and therefore very weak. When photographing streaming meteors, it is necessary to aim the camera at an area of ​​the sky at a distance of 20 ° -0 ° from the radiant (a point in the sky where meteors seem to fly out), since near-radiant meteors are very short and their photographic images may be lost among the daily traces of stars, and meteors ‚Too far from the radiant, although they have a long visible path, are very fast, and therefore, their photographic images will be very weak.

When photographing meteors, not only the number of meteors photographed is significant, but also the quality of their images, as well as the scale. It is recommended to release the shutter with the remote control or delayed release (2 sec), so that the stars do not blur on the frame.

There is also a genre of shooting meteors with short shutter speeds (5-8 seconds, depending on the focal length of the lens), so that the stars would remain dots. Very artistic photographs are obtained, but the likelihood of flying into the frame of a car, in this case, is greatly reduced.


Bright meteor from the Geminida stream. The shooting was carried out near the village of Achmard, Abkhazia 700m. n at. m. (December 2017.K. Radchenko)

By the way, Khabrovites photography lovers, you have a great opportunity to practice shooting meteors this year! The fact is that in 2020 the meteor shower "August Perseids" (there are also October Perseids), we observe quite well, the illumination from the moon does not interfere!

Perseids are bright flashes in the night sky, which can reach up to 100 meteors per hour! They are also called “stargazing” among the people, but in reality this is not so. Not shooting stars flare up, but small particles of a comet stretching behind it in a train, igniting from friction in the dense layers of our atmosphere. In more detail about meteors, about what it is, how to observe and photograph them, I can tell during the event.

Sochi Astrotour Club Orion invites you to take part in group observation of the peak activity of the Perseid meteor shower, in excellent conditions, in a place with extremely low artificial illumination! And it is also planned to visit the most beautiful canyon on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus! And participation in this event can be combined with a visit to the Black Sea coast!

A few photos of those places: The





















full version of the photo album from trips to these places can be found here: vk.com/album-68241032_271168719

More precisely, the place: this is a meadow, a little higher than the Paporotny hamlet, Tuapse district.

You can arrive at the place either by any car or by public transport, both from Sochi and from Krasnodar! Accommodation either in a tent or at a camp site in the neighborhood (about 500 rubles per person per day). Near the glade there is water and firewood!

Excursion to the canyon can be carried out by public transport. Walking will remain about 16km. (on both sides, without steep climbs)

It is recommended to take tripod cameras, binoculars, telescopes with you! We will also have a telescope with us, which anyone can see!

It is also necessary to have camping equipment with you for an autonomous existence: a warm sleeping bag, foam, a tent, dishes for food, a gas burner, a kettle, food, warm things for night sightings! If you plan to settle in a camp site, then of course a sleeping bag, a tent and bowlers with a burner are not needed.

Who plans to travel by public transport: an organized meeting of the group at the Tuapse bus station at 11-00 (August 11, 2020), we will return back at 16-40 (August 14, 2020).

Those who plan to arrive by car, then the whole infographic (below a large size of the map screenshots can be found in the comments to the post: vk.com/wall-55622479_483 )

Join us, fans of astrotourism will be cool, beautiful, interesting and memorable!

For all questions, please contact the mobile phone at 89186001325 Konstantin.

All great shots and successful observations of meteors!