Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower - Exmouth, Budleigh & Ladram...

[John Baker]

Its good when you get one good astro night in a week, then just every so often you get a run of clear nights.  Yesterday I managed to get a great session based over 3 East Devon locations starting at Ladram Bay, before moving to Budleigh Salterton and finally shooting the Geoneedle at Orcombe Point, Exmouth.

The first 3 are the sandstone stacks at Ladram Bay, the 3rd shot was accidentally lit by a friend who was firing a flash at the rock - this  shows the actual colour of the rock. The Milky Way was very low in the sky at this time...

4-7 are from Budleigh Salterton, utilising that essential astrophotogrphy tool - Wellington Boots   Shot while standing in the River Otter - Milky Way was looking seriously glorious on the Southern horizon.

The final 4 are of the Geoneedle at Orcombe Poiint - taken at around 3:00 just when the meteor shower was starting to be visible. The large meteor to the side of the needle I don't think is part of the Eta Aquarid, but it was very large and clear in the sky...

It was one of those rare evenings when all the conditions were perfect...

[johnfosteruk]

Stunning locations, lovely images John. I Reckon I'll have to get up your way one night soon, it's only an hour up the road and your shots have convinced me.

[John Baker]

17 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

Stunning locations, lovely images John. I Reckon I'll have to get up your way one night soon, it's only an hour up the road and your shots have convinced me.

Happy to meet half way - Bigbury is always impressive and was actual a possible location, but I did Start Point & Blackpool Sands on Monday night - on a previous shoot I sold some shots to the park at Ladram Bay and promised that I would go back.

I was pleased when the Plymouth Herald ran these - http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Stunning-pictures-meteor-shower-Devon/story-29233534-detail/story.html#1

[johnfosteruk]

I'd love to, I've just been looking at clearoutside to see if there's any chance of catching the Aquariids before they pass, quite typically for me it's not looking good. 

[Knighty2112]

Stunning pictures. Lovely work. Well done!  

[laudropb]

Very nice shots and good captures of the meteors.

[Beulah]

Wow a fabulous set of images; I know those areas very well.

I remember those fabulous southern horizons.

The Otter river area must be lovely and quiet that time of night... I know how busy it can get!

Don't remember the Geoneedle at Orcombe point, but it has been some years since I last visited....

[John Baker]

1 hour ago, Beulah said:

Wow a fabulous set of images; I know those areas very well.
I remember those fabulous southern horizons.
The Otter river area must be lovely and quiet that time of night... I know how busy it can get!
Don't remember the Geoneedle at Orcombe point, but it has been some years since I last visited....

The needle was commissioned by Devon County Council when the area Jurassic Coast was designated a UNESCO world heritage site back in 2002 and basically runs from Exmouth across to Dorset - the 5m needle was designed and built by Michael Fairfax.

A couple more Budleigh shots from a different evening last year at the time of the super-moon - I did not realise quite how interesting the site would be at night...

[Beulah]

Beautiful and surreal.  

[happy-kat]

Very much enjoyed looking at those, the first is my favourite.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Beautiful set once again, what were the capture details please? I must run my 14mm Samyang lens out to the coast to the south Cornwall coast to capture Sagittarius sometime.

[John Baker]

3 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Beautiful set once again, what were the capture details please? I must run my 14mm Samyang lens out to the coast to the south Cornwall coast to capture Sagittarius sometime.

They are a bit of a mixed bag. Lenses would be either 8-15mm f4 fisheye, or possibly a Tamron 15-30 f2.8 & I did borrow a colleagues Sammy 24mm f1.4 - let. E know which pic & I will share the EXIF - they will all be using the 500 rule, aperture wide open with various ISO, normally around 6,400.

South Cornwall is always a great location, I love the Lands End penninsula - a couple to inspire you... Ok so North coast Botallack, Lanyon Quoit and St Michaels Mount from Marazion...

[Beulah]

4 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Beautiful set once again, what were the capture details please? I must run my 14mm Samyang lens out to the coast to the south Cornwall coast to capture Sagittarius sometime.

Apart from the apparent talent John has, think the full frame DSLR helps a lot, too. 

Nikon, if I recall? 

I do like the way you utilise the light pollution in your compositions - can't avoid it, have to work with it!

[John Baker]

1 hour ago, Beulah said:

Apart from the apparent talent John has, think the full frame DSLR helps a lot, too. 

Nikon, if I recall? 

I do like the way you utilise the light pollution in your compositions - can't avoid it, have to work with it!

You have to work with what you have, that is half the fun, the key is to try to think through how the elements will interact - the key to this is the newer higher ISO cameras, while I shoot with a Canon 1Dx you would get similar results with a Nikon 810 but the new D5 would be awesome - but a tad expensive  

This is possibly my favourite image to date - it is Roche Rock in Cornwall, the rock & church is illuminated by a very low moon, a nice clear view of the Milky Way, the glow is from St Austell in the background, just at the same time as the ISS was going past, many of these pics get used in the local, regional and national press

[Aussie Dave]

Very nice work John. Which of your lenses did you use for the 6th shot in your first post, the 8-15L fisheye at 8mm?

[Stub Mandrel]

These could be great album covers....

[John Baker]

2 hours ago, Aussie Dave said:

Very nice work John. Which of your lenses did you use for the 6th shot in your first post, the 8-15L fisheye at 8mm?

That is with the 8-15 at 8mm - this would give me the fully circular image, out of the camera there is a lot of aberrations around the edge of the image, so I have created a circular mask -  other details, ISO 6,400 at f4 - 30 seconds taken while stood in the River Otter    The other use of this lens is to shoot straight up & it will give you a full 180 degree view - like this... 

[johnfosteruk]

That's brilliant John.

[Aussie Dave]

Thanks for that info John, quite a nice lens that. This is exactly the type of photography I'd like to get in to.

[John Baker]

23 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

That's brilliant John.

Thank you, I was looking for a lens which would do a full sky in a single shot...

5 hours ago, Aussie Dave said:

Thanks for that info John, quite a nice lens that. This is exactly the type of photography I'd like to get in to.

 the only thing is out the camera the area outside of the view is black, this is a simple trick and it removes some of the aberrations on the very edge - a couple more examples...

[Aussie Dave]

All great John.

That last shot seems to show some foreground lighting which may be needed for single shots for some foreground subject detail and illumination. I've seen this done with very good effect from other photographers too. What type of lighting did you use?

[John Baker]

4 minutes ago, Aussie Dave said:

All great John.

That last shot seems to show some foreground lighting which may be needed for single shots for some foreground subject detail and illumination. I've seen this done with very good effect from other photographers too. What type of lighting did you use?

I have tried various torches and most of those have a colour cast, what I tend to use now is a small flash gun with variable output. This allows me to then adjust the output as neccessary, e.g. 1/256" or 1/125" etc. The only other bit I have added is a cardboard "snoot" to stop the light spelling across the subject, with out this the light tends to go everywhere, remember when it is very dark a little light goes a long way - in this shot without light the old way marker cross would have been a silhouette....