Perseids 2016

kdog · August 15, 2016

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Two backpacking trips and shooting several events has pretty much consumed me for the past few weeks. I did manage to slip out Wednesday night, drove to Glacier Point in Yosemite, shot the Perseid Meteor Shower all night and drove home Thursday morning after a quick cat-nap in the car. The display was incredible, I saw hundreds of meteors and caught probably close to 100 on camera. There were several large fireball meteors which I only caught pieces of. Quite frustrating, and not worth showing.

I'll start with the last photo first, just so you don't miss it: Sunrise over Yosemite Valley.

Ok, on to a few meteor shots...

1

2 That's of course Half Dome on the horizon

3

4 This is a composite of several meteors

And finally, the movie.

A timelapse of around 2,000 photos. I recommend watching this directly on YouTube (click on the YouTube logo) and making it LARGE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AadkIOMWyo

Direct link on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_AadkIOMWyo

Thanks for looking!
-joel

slpollett · August 15, 2016

Ooooohhhhh.....that sunrise!!! That is so dang gorgeous.

I enjoyed your meteor shots too, especially since it was too cloudy where I live to view them. The composite is very cool.

I'm not able to see the time-lapse & didn't see a youtube link to click.

Sherry P.

Stumblebum · August 15, 2016

Brilliant Joel! Love the Sunset! Love the silhouette of Half Dome with meteor shower! Congrats on successful trip!!

clap

fool4thecity · August 15, 2016

Love the meteor show shots and your time-lapse on YouTube. Amazing.

kdog · August 15, 2016

slpollett wrote: »

Ooooohhhhh.....that sunrise!!! That is so dang gorgeous.

I enjoyed your meteor shots too, especially since it was too cloudy where I live to view them. The composite is very cool.

I'm not able to see the time-lapse & didn't see a youtube link to click.

Sherry P.

Thanks, Sherry! I added a direct link to the video if you want to check again.

Hikin' Mike · August 15, 2016

Great captures Joel. Love the video too! I'm going up there tomorrow afternoon.

pathfinder · August 15, 2016

Glad to see you captured them so well, Joel.

Your composite of the meteor streams, is facing approximately North East?

Earache · August 15, 2016

OMG... of all the gazillion YNP shots I've seen, I can't remember one like your sunrise shot... so awesome!!

Beautiful work all-around Joel!!
Is that the Orion Nebula near the left edge of meteor shot #1?... cool.

kdog · August 15, 2016

Stumblebum wrote: »

Brilliant Joel! Love the Sunset! Love the silhouette of Half Dome with meteor shower! Congrats on successful trip!!clap

Thanks, man! It was well worth the drive.

fool4thecity wrote: »

Love the meteor show shots and your time-lapse on YouTube. Amazing.

Thanks so much, Mike!

Hikin' Mike wrote: »

Great captures Joel. Love the video too! I'm going up there tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks very much, Mike. Have a great trip. Wish I could have spent more time there.

pathfinder wrote: »

Glad to see you captured them so well, Joel.

Your composite of the meteor streams, is facing approximately North East?

Thanks, Jim! Half Dome is almost exactly northeast of Glacier Point, so that view in the composite is just about due east. I should probably get off my lazy butt and make another composite for the NE view as well.

Earache wrote: »

OMG... of all the gazillion YNP shots I've seen, I can't remember one like your sunrise shot... so awesome!!

Beautiful work all-around Joel!!
Is that the Orion Nebula near the left edge of meteor shot #1?... cool.

Aw shucks, Eric. You're always too kind. Good question about that blob on the left edge being the Orion Nebula. Looks about right to me, but I'm no astronomer. There was a fellow there with the most amazing app on his phone. He pointed it at the sky and it showed the image of the sky like it was a camera, but it connected the stars to show the constellations and put labels on them. Incredible! Maybe someone knows the name of it. I will buy it.

dlplumer · August 15, 2016

These are all great, Joel. Fine work, as always.

clap

black mamba · August 15, 2016

Great stuff, Joel. One thing I've got to do is get my hands on some of that DL Sounds music you incorporated.

Welcome back....so to speak,

Tom

bristlecone · August 15, 2016

Geesh..... these are fantastic Joel! The sunrise pano of HD is my fav, one of the best I've ever seen from that location. The video is so fine. I've watched it several times. Image #4 should be hanging on someone's wall.
best,
-Len

slpollett · August 15, 2016

Ooohh, thanks for adding the link to the time-lapse. That was very cool.

I'm not sure if the star app your fellow photographer had is the same one that I have, but it sounds like it. It is called "Star Walk 2" and it was free. I have an Android phone, so I'm not sure if it is available for the iphones. You have to turn on location, but then all you have to do is point the phone at the sky and it will show you the constellations and where the Milky Way is. It is a pretty cool app and I used it to try my first star shots recently. I took a workshop from David Akoubian (www.bearwoodsphotography.com) and this is the app he recommended. He also named an app for the iphone, but I didn't write it down because I didn't need to know it. (Sorry!)

Sherry P.

kdog · August 16, 2016

dlplumer wrote: »

These are all great, Joel. Fine work, as always. clap

Thanks, Dan!

black mamba wrote: »

Great stuff, Joel. One thing I've got to do is get my hands on some of that DL Sounds music you incorporated.

Welcome back....so to speak,

Tom

Thanks, Tom! DL Sounds is great. I stumbled on them by googling for space music. Free downloads and no license restrictions at all, which seems really strange. I gave them the music credit, even though it wasn't required! They deserve our support.

bristlecone wrote: »

Geesh..... these are fantastic Joel! The sunrise pano of HD is my fav, one of the best I've ever seen from that location. The video is so fine. I've watched it several times. Image #4 should be hanging on someone's wall.
best,
-Len

Thanks VERY much Len.

slpollett wrote: »

Ooohh, thanks for adding the link to the time-lapse. That was very cool.

I'm not sure if the star app your fellow photographer had is the same one that I have, but it sounds like it. It is called "Star Walk 2" and it was free. I have an Android phone, so I'm not sure if it is available for the iphones. You have to turn on location, but then all you have to do is point the phone at the sky and it will show you the constellations and where the Milky Way is. It is a pretty cool app and I used it to try my first star shots recently. I took a workshop from David Akoubian (www.bearwoodsphotography.com) and this is the app he recommended. He also named an app for the iphone, but I didn't write it down because I didn't need to know it. (Sorry!)

Sherry P.

Thanks, Sherry! I downloaded Star Walk 2. Can't wait to try it out.

Celtic Snapper · August 16, 2016

Great shots Joel, the sunrise shot is my kinda image! Fantastic!

Cornflake · August 17, 2016

These are really terrific. It took real devotion to get them.

sapphire73 · August 17, 2016

That sunrise over Yosemite Valley is stunning! Thanks for sharing all of these.

slpollett wrote: »

I'm not sure if the star app your fellow photographer had is the same one that I have, but it sounds like it. It is called "Star Walk 2" and it was free. I have an Android phone, so I'm not sure if it is available for the iphones. You have to turn on location, but then all you have to do is point the phone at the sky and it will show you the constellations and where the Milky Way is. It is a pretty cool app and I used it to try my first star shots recently. I took a workshop from David Akoubian (www.bearwoodsphotography.com) and this is the app he recommended. He also named an app for the iphone, but I didn't write it down because I didn't need to know it. (Sorry!)

Sherry P.

Sky Guide might be the other one David Akoubian mentioned? It is another popular stargazing app, and I've been using it for a couple of years. Very helpful when visiting the southern hemisphere. This summer, I found that one can go back in time to look at the sky a previous evening. Made it easier to help a grandson work on an astronomy scout merit badge.

Looking at the reviews, I might download Star Walk 2 as well!

Perseids 2016

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