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Perseid's 2014

In the heavens is a constellation called Perseids.  Every year the earth moves through a band of dust created by the Swift-Tuttle comet and a meteor shower is the result.  Because it seems most of the activity is coming from the Perseids constellation, it has thus been named accordingly.

This happens in August of every year.  Many sky freaks think the 11-13th of August is a great time to wander outside in the wee hours to see these shooting stars.  I'm one of them.  One thing you need to photograph them is a nice black ambient-less sky.  Another is patience, and yet a third is an ability to resist being spooked when in a field far from town in the total blackness of night. 

For the first week of my stay in Northlandia I became nocturnal - sleeping by day, going star-gazing at night in order to try my luck at capturing shooting stars before the Supermoon drowned them all out with its light.  Good sky doesn't exist for me in Florida.  Too many lights, cities too big and close.   
















    
These pictures represent several hours of continual shutter-snapping.  I played a bit with the ISO (between 1200 and 6400) and length of exposure time.  But generally each one lasted 30 seconds at least until the sun started coming up, then I trimmed it accordingly down to about 10 seconds.

Attempting to catch a shooting star is all luck and chance.  Shoot enough pictures and you are bound to get something, and these are pretty neat, nonetheless.

These also just represent the outer stages of the band, with more activity in the coming week.  If the clouds stay away and the Supermoon doesn't dilute the sky, maybe I can get some more.  If so I'll post later, and wish me luck out there all alone at 3:00 am amid the sounds and rustlings of the night.    

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