April Lyrids meteor Shower

[Ganymede12]

I read in Sky at Night Magazine that the April Lyrids Meteor Shower was going to reach peak activity on the 26th. What I want to know is, Will I be able to see any Meteors from my garden? Bear in mind that I live in a town.

[glowjet]

From you garden you should be able to see meteors on a clear night, but depending on your light pollution you may not see all but the bright specimens

[cotterless45]

Yep, new Moon aswell, just sit back and wait! nice.

[sanmatt]

Looking forward to this. Is there anyway to try and image this event? Or least some of it?

[garethmob]

if you have a camera (it says you got d90:P) just set it on a 30s (or what ever you can get before star trails) and it will pick them up usally lyrids can have 20 - 30 an hour but its been known for 100 - 200 so it is usally one to watch expessly in the warmer time

you might be able to see them in a town but it depends on where your viewing is, for me anything about orion is fine, below its just a orange soupy mess (newport gwent)

[sanmatt]

Ah, so yeah normally I do 30s and stack for star trails, but I could do 30s subs to catch them and treat them as single subs? Thanks Gareth.

[garethmob]

what iv done in the past is just stacked them as is (so 5 - 10 pics usally not many more and look at indicudual pics, stak them together, and see if it improves otherwise i just stack 1 light with all darks

but ye, last time i saw a meator shower i had a fair few, was at cwm darran park nice and dark

if you are out watchin them rememeber to wrap up warm get a nice flask of tea and a chair or sun lounger, or if you feel for somthing classic, a flask of bovil mmmmmmmmm

[garethmob]

random question is the nikon a dslr or a normal? if dslr which lens's you got?

[sanmatt]

Sorry to crash the thread!!

Thanks Gareth. Its a DSLR, and I have a few lenses: 18-105mm, 18-250mm, 70-300mm and a N-AF 2X Teleplus pro 300 converter - which I have no idea how to use it.

edit: Talking of darks, I try to stack my darks in startrails.exe, but actually it doesnt appear to accept them. For example recently I had 100+ lights and some +60 or so darks. It said at the bottom when stacking 'n/100' ...it didnt seem to add the darks in.

[garethmob]

sadly iv never used that program iv only used DSS (only just started startrail images ) but the meteor showers as wide as possiable be useful. stop it down once or twice (F4 or f5 somthin) and try and get it as best you can to infinity focus sometimes the best way to view these is with a camera (photos) in lp skys iv even considered getting a video dome camera with it

[sanmatt]

sadly iv never used that program iv only used DSS (only just started startrail images ) but the meteor showers as wide as possiable be useful. stop it down once or twice (F4 or f5 somthin) and try and get it as best you can to infinity focus sometimes the best way to view these is with a camera (photos) in lp skys iv even considered getting a video dome camera with it

Ah I tried DSS and I struggle with that, I did try and stack my trails in it but it didnt work. I love taking the subs but I hate processing, purely I'm a bit impatient and not quite getting my head round it.

YeahI tend to stop it down as far as it will go, I think the lowest on mine is 3.5 but I'll see how 4 and 5 look aswell. Or should I go as low as I can?

[garethmob]

F stopping usallly reduces the amount of light entering the camera. the lower the number the more "open" the aperature on the cameras front is the higher the number F4 - F22 the smaller the aperature so less light. usally to get tighter circlar stars its best to "stop it down" so increase the number by one or 2 stops i dont have any zoom lens i use for astro only prime fixed ones.

appoliies to the OP