Perseid Metoer Shower

With all the hype this week of the great Perseid Meteor shower that 2015 was to deliver I didn't want to miss out.  I headed out to the beach near Lake Erie after dark (about 10:30 pm), pointed my camera south then north.

First shot is over Lake Erie with the Port Bruce beacon flashing.  I was using an app for my camera to record a time lapse of the movement of stars.  The process took about 20 minutes taking about 100 separate images.  I didn't like the outcome so I grabbed a single image merge and worked with it.

The second shot was a little simpler; point the camera in the general direction of the milky way, focus (not easy in pitch black) and expose for 25 seconds.

Port Bruce, in June

Many of you will recall that I somehow don't get to the beach in summer (very often).  This is one of those rare exceptions.  The fact that I had to wear a warm hoodie on this very cool evening made it somehow feel a little more normal (at least for me).

The bright orange light is probably Erie, Pa and/or Cleveland, OH.

Night Sky over Six Mile Lake

The Northern Lights

I've always felt cheated in that I've never seen a really good show of the Northern Lights in all my years of star gazing at the cottage.  Well I learned something early this month.  Not only does the Aurora Borealis extend down to southern Ontario but there are websites that forecast its level of activity.  So last week since we were at the cottage and the mosquitoes were only horrible, I decided to shoot the stars.  Did I mention how much I love digital sensors - they are so sensitive.  Yes, the coloured bands above the horizon is the Aurora Borealis.  No its not the shooting flames of green, orange or blue.  But I'm happy with the results.  The Milky Way was so bright.  You wouldn't know that our neighbour's cottage (building on the left side of image) is actually white.  The amber tone is due to a campfire casting its light across the lake.

The Southern Lights

The southern sky was bright too.  However, this is the light pollution of the nearest major city - Barrie, Ontario.  The red streak across the water is a boat travelling at night.

The North Star

Obviously, I'm not much of an astronomer.  I found the big dipper and followed the imaginary line to the brightest star in the sky.   This 30 minute exposure shows the earth's orbit rotating around this star.