[LargeFormat] Leonid Meteor Shower

[Clive Warren]

At 8:34 am -0600 17/11/01, Michael Briggs wrote:
>On 17-Nov-01 Clive Warren wrote:
>>  There are fairly reliable predictions that meteor shower at its peak
>>  may produce thousands of meteors per hour.
>
>The meteor shower will be worth seeing, but don't count on thousands per hour.
>Such predictions for the Leonids were also made in recent years, and 
>didn't pan
>out.
>
>If you want to take photos, use a fast film, fast lens, and a wide or normal
>lens.  This is one area that you are more likely to get results with a 35 mm
>camera (: because of the faster lenses available.
>
>--Michael

Michael,

I think that the advance in prediction techniques was made a couple 
of years ago - the shower last year confirmed that the predictions 
worked very well.

As for technique - yep and thanks for the advice. I am hoping to use 
a 7" aero Ektar on 4x5. This has an aperture of f2.5 and is corrected 
for infinity - probably performs very well wide open. This is one of 
those times that not having a shutter is an advantage in the dark - 
just take the lens cap off :-)

As for film - B&W 400ASA pushed one stop. As you seem to know a bit 
about astro photography, what do you think my chances are?  I 
understand that the meteors will probably be as bright as the the 
brightest stars but will be very fast moving.

This is all armchair work and will probably remain so given the cloud 
cover we have here in England at the moment. The forecast is for more 
cloud :-(

Cheers,
        Clive