Witness the Perseid meteor shower with the aid of online tools and a camera that would help you capture the once-a-year celestial event. This post shares a fair number of websites and equipment specifications that you can use so you don't miss the event.
Dark Places Where Meteor Showers Are Visible
The Light Pollution Map website allows you to spot the dark places, which are best to view the meteor shower. You can also use the Clear Sky Chart, which provides forecasts for visibility and skywatching in specific areas.
If you can't go far from your place, just choose a location outside your house with as little artificial lighting as you can. Meteors will be easier to see in a dark sky.
Get as far away from the lights of the street as you can. Light pollution is one issue that stargazers deal with. National Geographic explained that light pollution, also known as artificial light at night, is the improper or excessive use of artificial outdoor lighting.
It disturbs the natural behavior of wildlife, raises atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, interferes with people's sleep, and blocks out the stars in the night sky.
People who live in urban areas with high levels of sky glow or artificial outdoor lighting that brightens the sky have a difficult time seeing more than a few stars at night.
Sky glow pollution worries astronomers in particular because it makes it harder for them to see celestial objects.
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Equipment to View the Perseid Meteor Shower
You don't need a telescope to watch the meteor shower because you may need a much wider field of vision as the shooting stars flash across the sky for a short time before they disappear.
However, a mirrorless camera that can shoot in 4K resolution at up to 25 frames per second can be used to capture it. When choosing a camera, check the high-speed video, which can achieve a frame rate of more than 100 fps.
Professional photographers Diana Robinson and Paul Van Allen, who frequently capture the night sky, told Nikon that it is best to start each shoot with a basic exposure setting and experiment from there to find the perfect exposure. She said that she used manual mode, f/2.8, 20 seconds, ISO 4000, and a white balance of 4000 Kelvin.
Then she will change the ISO and shutter speed depending on the level of darkness. The earth's rotation on its axis causes stars to become blurry in longer exposures, which is why she never goes above 25 seconds.
This is a good starting point, but you can build upon it if you want to capture both a meteor shower and the Milky Way in the same picture.
Why Should You Watch The Perseids Meteor Shower 2022?
You should watch the Perseid because it is one of the best meteor showers of the year. It produces bright meteors and is also considered the most active. During the Perseid meteor shower, there is also a good chance of seeing fireballs, which are extremely bright meteors, as well as meteors with long trains.
You can catch the celestial show at one in the morning on Saturday, when it peaks. You don't need to get your star map to figure out where you should be looking. The best thing to do is to simply look up because these shooting stars might appear anywhere. If you're lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a shooting star every few minutes.
The weather during the monsoon season can be unpredictable and change suddenly at any time of day. In other words, your experience may vary depending on where you are.
The Dark Sky website offers hyperlocal weather forecasts for a specific area if you'd like to know what the weather will be like that night.
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