8-11-09 Meteor Shower

So around 1 in the morning, me and Lisa drove out to an area in Lake County in hopes to see the Perseid Meteor shower which is best to see from August 11 to the 12. The best times are supposed to be a couple hours before dawn but seeing that we we're going to wait 4 more hours, we decided to go out around 1. We didn't see a HUGE shower but we about 5 or 6. Here are some pictures. My camera settings were: shutter speed of 30" and f/stop 1.8, ISO 100. Here are a couple pictures of the night, NOT THE METEOR SHOWER!

This is actually the moon. The glare is from the long shutter speed but the main subject in the moon.

This is the moon again. the weird drawing looking figures is actually from the movement of the camera during the long shutter speed.

Here's the moon again from a different time and a little different setting.

A couple radio towers from where we were sitting.

I was able to capture this cloud that had a bunch of lightning activity going on. It was actually pretty cool.

And of course, one pose for the camera... A little dark but you get the point.

Overall, it was quite what I expected but it was still pretty cool. I was expecting a MASSIVE shower of shooting stars but only saw about 6. If you can get the chance to go see them, take it. It was definitely something not everybody gets to see. Best times are probably around 4 or 5 AM. Get to a dark area where city lights are not a factor and just lay down on the floor on or on your car and just watch the sky. You won’t be disappointed if you see a shooting star. Trust me!