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What a night!
Opportunities like this don't come around too often, so I try and make the most of them when they do.
I'm talking about the Perseid meteor shower that occurs annually around the middle of August, but usually there's a bright moon or cloud cover, or indeed light pollution from towns and cities to prevent seeing and photographing anything meaningful.
But the August of 2015 was one of those rare times when these factors were actually favourable in that there was no moon in the sky until just before sunrise, and clear skies were forecast for North Wales overnight from the evening of the 11th to the morning of the 12th.
The only remaining problem to be overcome before an overnight meteor watch and photograph could be contemplated was the light pollution, which is quite bad where I live in Mold, with the lights of Chester and Liverpool turning the heavens orange.
Fortunately for me there's plenty of places in North Wales, both inland and on the coast, that still have reasonably dark skies, and after much thought about potential foreground interest and shooting directions I eventually decided to head to Anglesey and photograph from the tip of Llanddwyn Island, which offers good views to the north and south as well as being away from most sources of light pollution.
As far as equipment went, I decided to take everything!
Well - not everything - as there's a fair trek along a sandy beach from the Newborough car park to the tip of Llanddwyn Island and I wanted to arrive in a fit state to actually do something when I got there.
But I did get my good old Canon 5D out of retirement to use alongside my newer Canon 6D, so I could have one camera pointing north towards the constellation of Perseus, the origin of the Perseid meteor shower, and one pointing south to take in the milky way along with any stray meteors that made it to that part of the sky.
In the end, I decided to point my 5D north and my 6D south, and set both off shooting continuously on 15 second exposures as the skies approached maximum darkness at around 11.30pm.
The Canon 5D, which took this image, lasted for 699 exposures before all my batteries were exhausted.
Of all the images taken on the camera, this was the only one with a decently bright meteor showing.
What an effort just to get one good image!
Was it worth it? You bet!
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!
You see, it's not just the pleasure of taking and making photos that sends me out on nights like these, but the awesome experience of just taking in the vastness and beauty of God's creation, as shown in the night sky, is something that feeds my soul and spirit as well.
Mind you, I'm still recovering from the sleep deprivation!
Filename - perseid meteor 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure - 15 secs @ f4, ISO1600
Location - Llanddwyn Island, Anglesey, North Wales
This image - 800x450px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - High ISO used to capture faint detail
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