no Geminids captured

[sgazer]

well, I had the camera rolling from 9:30 until 11:30pm last night, Canon 300d, ISO1600, 28mm lens, 20-30sec subs. Took about 240 subs, but unfortunately I have nothing to show for it. I was pointing towards Gemini, Castor and Polux on were on the left of the frame. I was hoping to capture something during that time! I think it's going to be cloudy tonight too.

[MaCross]

Well, why dont you show us one of your captures (even without Geminid) anyway?

[brianb]

With a wide angle lens you'd probably do better to point about 60 to 90 degrees away from the radiant.

The rate tonight should be higher, but luck certainly playes a part. However I'd suggest leaving it as late as possible, maximum is around 5am & meteor rates are always higher in the morning hours because of the orbital geometries (you're on the "leading" side of the Earth which is obviously more likely to run into debris).

Capture in RAW so you can drill down into the mush, I've found meteor trails which were completely invisible when the images were displayed "normally".

[sgazer]

Thanks for the tips Brian, unfortunately it's a bit too overcast tonight. Hopefully others will have more luck if there is a clear spot somewhere in the country!

ps. thanks mods for moving it to discussion where it should have been:o

[Scott Tilley]

Hi Sgazer. You must have been pointing the camera at the exact same place as me last night:D (out until 2 am and nothing) You didn't catch 2 trails made by aircraft did you as thats all I had to show!!

Scott

[brianb]

Here's an example of what I mean by "drilling down":

2009 Nov 11, 0512 UT. Crop from Canon 40D, 50mm, 6 sec at f/2, ISO 400, green layer.

The star cluster is M35, and the meteor is probably a Taurid. The capture was "accidental", the exposure was calculated for photometry of variable stars in this region; in the review screen or a conventional image editing program, only two or three stars can be seen in this part of the image.

[sgazer]

that some serious contrast stretching there!

Anyone know a (free) programme that will automatically stretch 240 images (apart from doing an 'action' on each one in PS7)? I tried Photoscape, but it's limited.

ps, I thought I'd spotted a Geminid, but is was a plane trail!

[jgs001]

It's not easy, I caught only 2 definites last night in 90 captures. But... apart from trying to stretch them all (try download the free trial of Lightroom, you can set one stretch on one image, then just copy the adjustments to the other 239)... I might need to go do the same to mine. However, you can use all 240 and make a startrails form the images. The results can be quite interesting.