Often the best meteor showers of the year are spoiled by bright moonlight during peak activity, but there are ways you can still capture photos of meteors even when this happens.
The peak of a meteor shower can be a delicate thing to observe, even for showers with good rates.
For the best views, you need the shower radiant at a decent altitude, clear weather and no Moon to interfere.
Here we'll show you how to employ a few techniques that will help you photograph a meteor trail under skies heavily illuminated by moonlight.
The problem with the meteors and moonlight
We can’t predict what the weather will be, but we can predict when the Moon will be a nuisance during a meteor shower.
This is worst when the full Moon is visible in the sky at the same time as peak of a meteor shower, especially when it's located near the radiant.
If there is any haze or mist present, this will be amplified by moonlight to create a natural meteor-reducing filter.
But surprisingly, while the visual experience will be greatly diminished, it is still possible to catch meteor using a camera under such extreme conditions.
Photographing a meteor shower
For general meteor shots under dark-sky conditions, the basic technique is to set camera sensitivity high and take an exposure of sufficient length to deliver a bright but not over-exposed result.
This is then repeated continuously throughout the night.
Typically, 30–60-second exposures are best, but for light-polluted skies this could drop to as low as 10 seconds.
However, go below 10 seconds and the time it takes your camera to move the recorded image to storage before starting the next exposure will become significantly wasteful.
That results in a lot of dead imaging time.
How to beat the Moon
Bright moonlight is essentially natural light pollution, and the closer to the Moon you point your camera the brighter this will be, leading to shorter maximum exposures before reaching over-exposure.
Pointing your camera further from the Moon’s position will allow you to achieve a decent length of exposure in which meteors will record.
Set your camera’s ISO to a mid-range value and using a fast widefield lens, say near to 18mm focal length, take a test 10-second exposure and examine the result.
If it looks pure white, the sky is too bright and you’ll need to lower your ISO or close the lens down slightly.
If it’s less than over-exposed, you’re good to go for a moonlight meteor hunt.
Make sure you have a decent amount of storage and plenty of charged batteries.
Keep an eye out for the formation of dew over a long December night too.
One benefit of a bright Moon is that this is pretty easy to spot on the front surface of the lens. You can remove it using a 12V hairdryer.
If you do manage to capture a photograph of a meteor when the Moon is big and bright, we'd love to see it! Share with us via contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com.
