Video of Alpha Scorpiid Meteor Shower 8th May 2012

[von Tom]

I thought I might give trying to capture some meteors a go using the Canon EOS 600D and 30mm f/1.4 lens, in video mode at 4 frames/sec (this speed is possible using the Magic Lantern firmware). Setting up last night facing East the camera recorded 95 minutes of sky, including the Moon.

Trawling through the resulting video (which was 12 minutes long played back at 30 frames/sec) I picked up 5 meteors. Using Avidemux, Star Trails and Photoshop I created the following composite image. The tail of Scorpius is at top right.

The meteors all seemed to radiate from one spot. I though only the Eta Aquariids were on at the moment so I did a search and apparently the Alpha Scorpiids are also going on. There seems to be quite a bit of activity for a minor shower.

A video of the shower, 3 hours' worth compressed into 2 minutes and showing more meteors is here:

http://youtu.be/dC_ZNL5txbM


Thanks for looking,

Tom

[Liz]

Fabulous Tom!! That looks great, and maybe good data for some Meteor Organisation. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[iceman]

Clever work Tom. Would be even better without that pesky moon!

[jjjnettie]

Nice one Tom. :)

[von Tom]

Thanks guys. Video link added to the first post.

Tom