Fuck the Perseids

Attempted to photograph the Perseids tonight, but failed for several reasons. Should have done a little more research, I guess. Maybe next year…

9 Responses to “Fuck the Perseids”

1. Buttsauce Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 11:49 am

   I forgot that was happening last night. Was one of the reasons you failed because it wasn’t as spectacular as usual?

   I only ask because it seems in the above picture, absolutely nothing is happening. I remember the last time I watched the Perseids, it was fucking bonkers.

   Where did you go to shoot? Hat Six or something?

2. JOEPuD Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

   you should have shot in black and white thats where the art is bro

3. JOEPuD Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

   oh yeah fuck gauntlet

4. JOEPuD Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

   no but we really need to beat that game so we can be connected in some way right

5. zhx Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

   Actually, last night was the best night for the Perseids in a while because there was no moon, which normally washes them out.

   One of my problems was the peak wasn’t until after 2am, and I had to work in the morning. I only stayed out til a little after 1. Secondly, I went out past the new 2nd street expansion, into a part of town I’ve never been, but was still a little close to all that crap out east, so there was still a little light pollution (so I couldn’t expose as long as I would have liked).

   Lastly, that picture looked much better on my nice (calibrated) monitor at home, which had the ONLY meteor I caught all night (on film — the best meteors I saw all night always appeared where my camera wasn’t pointing). When I looked at it on my monitor at work, you can’t see anything. Still, even at the Perseids’ peak, there are still only about 60 meteors per hour. It’s not like fire rains from the sky. A one minute exposure with a super wide lens will capture you two meteors if you’re extremely lucky.

   On a properly calibrated monitor, there’s the faint streak of a single meteor in the top left quarter of the photo, and that’s all I got all night. :indifferent:

   Fun fact! In the early 90’s it was discovered that Swift-Tuttle, the comet responsible for the Perseids, had a very good chance of colliding with Earth (or the moon) the next time it came by (2126). The orbit was again recalculated, and though it will most likely eventually hit Earth (or the moon), it won’t happen in this millenium. In 2126, the comet will “only” miss Earth by about 15 million miles.

6. Buttsauce Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

   I see it now! I was wondering too how late you stayed out there. The best I’ve read was before sunrise it can get up to 80 an hour.

   It’s too bad you didn’t get any of those few gnarly big ones that light up really bright and change colors.

7. zhx Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

   There was a really good one RIGHT when I showed up, so I figured I had the opportunity to capture at least ONE of that intensity, but no luck. It was still pretty cool, just not very photogenic (at least, not with my equipment). My original plan was to get up before sunrise and shoot, but I don’t have that sort of discipline.

8. Buttsauce Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

   You should’ve just stayed up drinking. I find one has more discipline to stay awake drinking when half shit faced at 4 in the morning. But then I guess you’d have to try and work your equipment half shit faced.

   New band name: Half Shit Faced.

9. Chris W. Says:
   August 13th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

   On my monitor it looks like you posted a perfectly black square. I mean, it’s a pretty fuckin’ bitchin’ black square though.

Leave a Reply