Perseid meteor shower & light pollution

The Perseid meteor shower

The famous Perseid meteor shower is supposed to be extra vibrant this year due to an exceptionally dark moon. Since I was not traveling for business, I took the opportunity to drive to a somewhat remote location outside of Munich. Unfortunately, I had to discover that even 30 miles outside of a city light pollution has reached a degree where you can barely see the milky way with your own eyes.

One of the key lessons for astro photography I had learned in recent years is that you need to scout a location during day time. There should be a compelling foreground to offset the milky way, for example. However, following an impulse last night night I completely disregarded that learning and found my site to be utterly boring and not necessarily suited for this kind of photography. I did not feel like driving around at midnight to find something else and instead decided to just take 2-3 photos and to enjoy the calm and beauty of the night. Oh…..we saw last a handful of meteors.

Both photos were taken with a Samyang 2.8 fish-eye for the Fuji X-T1.

Stars-1-2
The entire scene through a fish-eye. Notice: no meteors
Lacking any kind of compelling foreground, I decided to paint a star.
Lacking any kind of compelling foreground, I decided to paint a star.
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