Meteor passing through Orion, 1Aug09

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

A friend at work lent me his Pentax 50mm f/1.4 prime lens, so I took a few images at 5am today. In the very first image I took, I managed to catch a meteor passing through Orion! I've tried on several occasions to catch a meteor without success, so I was very happy to have caught this one.

The image is attached, along with a crop showing the meteor more clearly. Looks like the meteor was coming almost directly in, as it left only a short trail.

I was amazed to have captured so much light in just a 4 second exposure! There is also a 6 second exposure of the Pleiades, Hyades and Mars, and a crop of a 10 second exposure showing Jupiter and Neptune. I'm certainly impressed with this lens - shame they sell for about $600...

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Stephen

[renormalised (Carl)]

Nice shots there, Stephen, especially of the meteor.

Looks like it's leaving a green trial....that's fluorescing O2 and iron.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks Carl! I agree, the meteor shot is the best of these. I was out again with the lens this morning, but there were fewer meteors. I did manage to catch M31 though (posted in the Deep Space forum).

Cheers,
Stephen

[Quark (Trevor)]

Nice images Stephen,
Like Orion with the meteor trail.

Cheers
Trevor

[scarper (Mart)]

Nice capture Stephen
I did notice orion up there the other morning when I was on the way to work.

Cant wait for it to be in the night sky again.

[h0ughy (David)]

not bad mate - bit of flaring in the lens and the focus was not the best, but as you said the lens shows promise. My Pentax shows lens flaring as well, i thought it was a lens problem, which it is partly as it is a sigma, but the Pentax does exhibit this behaviour. Try to focus, its always my downfall, also instead of using the full 1.4 try F2 to sharpen the stars a bit.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks Trevor, Mart and David.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

not bad mate - bit of flaring in the lens and the focus was not the best, but as you said the lens shows promise. My Pentax shows lens flaring as well, i thought it was a lens problem, which it is partly as it is a sigma, but the Pentax does exhibit this behaviour. Try to focus, its always my downfall, also instead of using the full 1.4 try F2 to sharpen the stars a bit.

That's good advice David. I guess f/2 is still farly fast compared to 3.5-4.0! I don't mind the lens flaring though - it shows the colours of the brighter stars nicely.

I'll try again once the moon gets out of the way.

Cheers,
Stephen