Ready for taking pictures of Perseid Meteor Shower

Around August 12&13 the annual Perseid Meteors will show up. What about taking pictures this year? Looking at some forums and websites taking pictures with DSLR from meteors are different when taking pictures from Iridium flares and stars. Most common meteor pictures are taken with lenses equal or below 55mm with low f/ number. Exposure time is depending darkness of the sky (with or without moonlight) but mostly around 30s (see also my blog for rule of 600). ISO number should be high from 800 even as high as 3200 or higher. Good luck! 

Startrail @ Zenith with Lyra & Cygnus

Startrail taken @ zenith with constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Other traces are due to airplanes flying over. Total of 48 pictures taken with Nikon D60 each 30s 18mm f/3.5 ISO100 and stacked using Startrails.de software and edited using CS4.
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Photo Shelfcloud published in Newspaper

Today my photo of the shelfcloud from last Saterday was published in the National Newspaper "Het Nieuwsblad".

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Shelfcloud above Averbode

A couple of minutes before heavy weather above Averbode this rare and impressive shelfcloud was put on picture.

Iridium 67 flare mag -6.1

Bright Iridium 67 flare Magnitude -6.1 taken with Nikon D60 f4 27mm ISO100 with 118s exposure.

Startrail : What's the max exposure time still seeing stars and not trails

Still want to see stars when taking a picture of the evening sky? So what is the maximum exposure time of your DSLR without seeing tracks of stars on your picture.
Rule of thumb : 600 divided by the focalpoint (mm) x cropfactor DSLR.

Example 1 : Nikon D60 with f 18mm : 600/(18*1.5) = 22s
Example 2 : Nikon D60 with f 200mm : 600/(200*1.5) = 2s
Example 3 : Nikon D60 with Celestron 400 : 600/(550*1.5) = 0,7s

Cropfactor Nikon D60 = 1.5

Text changed on August 5th.

Startrail around polarstar

The sky is clear and I'm on holliday. So what do you at evening? Yes, watching the sky and more specific taking some pictures of Iridium flares and trying out making a startrail.
Picture below is build up from 62 pictures each 30s exposure time, ISO 100 with Nikon D60 18mm with 30s between each photo. The first picture is edited using CS4 and "lighten".
The second picture is edited using the software Startrails - see Startrails.de website.
With a full moon and some minor clouds conditions were not optimal but as a first try out...

Edited with CS4 - 62 pictures Nikon D60 30s ISO100 18mm

Edited with Startrails.de - 62 pictures Nikon D60 30s ISO100 18mm