Well. As I’ve done for most of my backyard astronomy life, I find myself at the big meteor shower of the summer, the Perseids, and as usual.. the weather prediction is for clouds.
Why… Why do I do astronomy in a light polluted, notoriously cloudy city?
According to the weather, it may clear up a bit in the 2am and 3am hours tonight, which is close enough to the peak time, that I might just give up a nights sleep over the hope.
I’d like to set up the barn door tracker, put the 40mm lens on the camera and aim it at the shower’s radiating point. With the tracker I think I can take 1 minute exposures (if I set my iso carefully) and maybe catch some meteor trails with a nice star field in the background.
The nice thing is with nice bright Jupiter up at that time, I know I’ll be able to use it to get a sharp focus.
This is something I can safely start running with my intervalometer and go inside and take a nap.. Or.. wait… it could just rain all over my camera… Ok, so no sleep for me.
Stefanos's Blog 