I decided last night to try my hand for the first time to really take a serious starfield picture, and in that process hoped maybe to capture a Perseids Meteor. I was out for about 3 hours taking dozens of images with my Canon digital SLR. While I was out I saw between 30 and 40 meteors. I was rather disappointed as I was hoping for more from all accounts I had read on what was expected. The area in West Texas where I was has exceptional viewing and according to the light pollution maps is in the second darkest areas. Nonetheless, the overall amount I saw wasn’t that much, with many of them being faint. I didn’t see any really bright ones and no fireballs.
What I did learn was that I have a lot to learn and a lot of practice ahead, so there is much room for improvement. That said I did catch one of the brighter meteors and got one other star trail image that I liked, so I thought I would share those with you here. 🙂
You can click on the images to get a bit larger one.
Very long day in Lubbock Saturday for the 4th of July. My day started around 3 am. I needed to be in Lubbock by 7 am and pick up storm chaser friend Steve Miller down from Amarillo who was going to ride with me in the parade. My son was also up from Odessa for the events.
We arrived to queue for the parade route with the rest of the Channel 11 bunch around 8 am, and threw on some quick decorations. Channel 11 had 4 vehicles total in the parade, one pulling a float with the anchors/reporters on it.
We streamed the crowd live as we went through the parade which took about an hour, and because we were near the front, we were able to get back around and catch the tail end of it. Steve was really getting the crowd going! “You guys seen any tornadoes?” LOL Then we spent a couple of hours checking out all the food and music in the 4th on Broadway celebration.
As it began to heat up, we decided to retreat to air conditioning for some rest for a few hours, then had dinner and headed out to the American Wind Power Museum where they had allowed us in to their VIP private area on the museum grounds to view the fireworks. This area is on a hill overlooking McKenzie Park where the fireworks and other evening festivities were taking place and was an awesome place to take photography.
Before the official fireworks even began, we were treated with a good 2 hours of non-stop fireworks from people living next to the museum, and increasingly more for people arriving for the evening in the park. Despite a large police presence, it didn’t stop tons of fireworks from being shot illegally in the city limits there. We didn’t mind at all.
As is began to get dark, the Lubbock skyline began to light up from one side to the other as everyone across town shot off their fireworks. I have never seen so many in my life! We could then see the official show out at the country club to our north, and then finally the official show, which we streamed live on the ChaseCam here on the website.
Despite the fact we had virtually no wind and that was keeping the smoke in place, I still managed to get quite a few photos I am pleased with, and of course the video. One lesson learned… next year I will be putting out a remote mic so I can just get the firework sounds and not everyone talking around me too (including myself!).
