Meteor

[Guest]

Back to 30 seconds exposure:

 

 

[Tweedledee]

Very nice Phil. You also have the globulars M13 and M92 in there. 

 

I'd say the meteor is probably sporadic, but could possibly be an Aurigid, as Auriga looks to be in the direction of the radiant. Aurigids are around in mid September, but I don't think many are ever seen.

[+Graham]

What a great shot.

Right time right place as they say.

[Guest]

Thanks, Folks! I am planning to catch a few meteors "accidentally on purpose". The plan is to leave a camera on clear nights taking multiple frames of the same part of sky. I think the zenith is the right place, as any sporadic meteors would be more visible there. The trade-off is that a 30-second exposure on lower ISO gives better deep sky shots, whereas a shorter exposure and higher ISO captures more meteors. I use an intervalometer. I can look at other objects while the camera is snapping away.

 

Watching for sporadic meteors is almost like watching paint dry, at times and even during showers it can be tens of minutes before you see one. Bearing in mind that my camera is only "snapping" half of the sky at a time and I'm covering about a quarter of the sky at any one time, it gives a rate of just over a meteor per hour.