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- This yr’s Perseid meteor bathe is energetic up till August 24
- It peaked on August 12-13, however shall be clearly seen within the Northern Hemisphere once more tonight
- Head to a darkish sky space and search for any time between 11pm and 5am
As if a complete eclipse earlier than sundown throughout components of Europe wasn’t sufficient, the Perseid meteor bathe peaked on the identical day, August 12 (with a uncommon six-planet alignment chucked in for good measure).
You’d suppose that as knowledgeable photographer I’d’ve had all of the gear for the 2026 eclipse (which maxed at round 91% the place I used to be within the UK), however I opted to easily take pleasure in it with my household and a colander. The Perseids however, had been the celestial present that I acquired my gear out for.
Like the six planets, the circumstances aligned for optimum images of the Perseid meteor bathe; a darkish new moon and clear darkish skies graced the place I reside throughout peak exercise. It was heat sufficient to be out in shorts, too.
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(Image credit: Tim Coleman)
How I photographed the Perseid meteor shower
For meteor photography, you absolutely need a method of keeping your camera completely still. I recommend a tripod support, though at a pinch you could prop your gear on a solid surface.
For my Pixel phone, I selected the Night Sight mode in the camera app. Once it had detected that the tripod-mounted device was completely still, the crescent moon on the photo icon changed to stars, indicating that the astrophotography mode had become available.
Hitting the photo icon on screen then starts a +4 minute timer on screen, at the end of which an optimized night sky image appears in the phone’s gallery, together with one second-long timelapse video covering that entire sequence.
The alternative is standard the Night Sight mode, though to have any chance of a bright enough exposure, you’ll need to manually increase the exposure time to the maximum possible six seconds. The astrophotography option yields much better quality results. For other devices besides the Pixel, check for equivalent photo modes.
Meanwhile, I set my Nikon lens to its widest 24mm focal length and an f/3.5 aperture, and set the Z6 II camera exposure settings manually to 20 seconds and ISO 3200. Any slower and the stars would start to streak (trail) rather than be distinct dots (the astrophotography rule of thumb for crisp stars is calculated as follows: focal length multiplied by shutter speed = 500 or less).
I usually shoot night sky photos in RAW format, and set the white balance to the tungsten setting for a rich blue color. I manually focus the lens to infinity and then dial it back a fraction.
Once the mirrorless gear was ready, I took the meteor photos with a self timer to avoid camera shake that occurs when pressing the shutter button by hand. The Z6 II can take up to nine consecutive images with the timer option, which in this scenario covered three minutes each time (given each photo is 20 seconds long). Alternatively, I could have locked the shutter button down with a remote release and the camera would run all night, which is what I do for star trail photography.
Smartphone vs mirrorless: which rig did I prefer?
Given the need for a tripod support, I didn’t really feel that the phone was any more convenient than the bulkier mirrorless system, despite its simpler design.
Furthermore, the astrophotography mode remains illuminated on screen during the 4+ minute process of capturing a single image, which was somewhat of a distraction — you don’t want a bright screen in sight when watching a meteor shower. Conversely, the Nikon camera’s screen goes dark during each long exposure, which complimented the whole experience much better.
More importantly, I found that I couldn’t rely on the Pixel’s astrophotography mode auto editing. In almost all of the final photos, there were no visible meteors despite them clearly occurring during the four minute capture and being in frame, confirmed when I watched back the one-second timelapse video sequences (see below).
It seems as though for the most part, the Pixel device edits out meteors (and passing planes) in favor of a clean night sky image. It reminded me of my experience photographing the northern lights with a Pixel a couple of years back — I found the astrophotography mode over-edited.
The Nikon camera, meanwhile, faithfully recorded each meteor in frame during the 20-second-long exposures. And, with a little creative editing, I could composite multiple meteors from multiple photos into one (assuming from images with identical composition) to get a final image with multiple meteors. You can see some of my photos below.
Put simply, I preferred the handling of the mirrorless camera, and the faithfulness of the images it produces, over my experience using a Pixel phone.
The Perseids lowdown for tonight
The Perseids are active up until August 24, but your best best is getting out asap this week. Last night, August 12 into the early hours of August 13, was the peak, but you can expect to see plenty more meteors tonight and in the coming evenings.
During peak activity, you can expect around 50-100 visible Perseid meteors per hour below darkish skies within the Northern Hemisphere. Pre-dawn hours are really useful, however I noticed loads at round midnight as soon as I had settled down — you’ll be able to attempt any time between 11pm and 5am native time.
You can comply with my gear recommendation above however, truthfully, identical to with the photo voltaic eclipse, the Perseid meteor bathe is arguably greatest loved purely for the magical spectacle that’s, with out getting slowed down by gear.
I have to’ve been sat with my son for over an hour within the heat climate, watching the evening sky intently for the place the following meteor would seem, delighting in every one, plus one other hour on my own after he had gone inside to mattress.
Some meteors appeared like faint white strains, others started as multi-color streaks and completed as blazing fireballs. Sods regulation the fiercest meteor I noticed all evening occurred after I had packed up the digital camera gear to name it an evening at round 2:30am. Trust me, it actually was one thing.
I plan to move out once more tonight to a close-by historic website with each cameras as soon as extra to get higher framed photographs together with factors of curiosity, but it surely’s the Nikon that I’ll be counting on.
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