The Geminids are a reliable meteor shower that I’ve been successful photographing before; and last night/this morning at the predicted peak, the sky was clear.  Only one thing stood in the way of seeing and capturing meteors: a just-past-full Moon sitting in Gemini, the radiant point of the shower.

I went out to try to photograph the meteors anyway, and I’m glad I did.  I saw 15 bright meteors in about three hours, and got six good pictures.

Here is a zoom into the top picture:

Camera geek info:

•             Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/4, 2.0 second exposure, ISO 4000
•             Sigma 10-20 mm f/4-5.6 lens, set at 10 mm, manual focus
•             Intervalometer with bulb at 2 sec, intervals at 3 sec
•             Tripod

I was seeing most of the meteors between Orion and Taurus, so I decided to switch to a faster, less wide-angle lens.  For the first time, when I saw a meteor, I also caught it with the camera.  I’ll be using this setting in the future.

Camera geek info:

•             Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/2.8, 2.0 second exposure, ISO 2000
•             Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8EX lens, set at 24 mm, manual focus
•             Intervalometer with bulb at 2 sec, intervals at 3 sec
•             Tripod

One web site suggested going out tonight (December 14) between sunset and moonrise to try to see meteors – I think I’ll try it!