Catch Perseid Meteor Shower At Its Peak This Week (Plus: Photo Tips From A Local Pro)

The peak of the annual Perseid meteor showers is this week — and the dark skies of the Leelanau Peninsula offer prime opportunity to spot meteors with the naked eye. To best see the Perseids, go to the darkest possible location in the pre-dawn hours, point yourself generally toward the north and observe as much sky as possible directly above you. 

The shower hit its peak the morning of August 12, but you should be able to spot meteors between midnight and dawn any morning for the next week, according to NASA.

The Leelanau Ticker asked nature photographer Sheen Watkins of Northport to provide us with her tips on observing and photographing our night skies. Watkins offers individual or group Zoom video workshops and in-person photo workshops outdoors in prime night-sky viewing spots across the peninsula. 

Says Watkins, “Our summer skies are quite busy this summer. We recently enjoyed the Neowise comet as it hovered in our northwestern skies. This week, the Perseid meteor shower offers streaks and streams of white lights across the dark skies. With an active and rough average rate of 50, 60 and even 75 meteors per hour, you’ll see many. Since they are quite bright, we will be able to view them easily with the naked eye.”

She adds, “From a photography standpoint, they add interest to our dark sky images, too.”

For those of you who want to photograph the starry night skies, Watkins shares the following gear, shooting and composition tips. For more detail on photographing the night skies, check out her recent article on her blog, www.apertureandlight.com.

How do I focus on the sky? You’ll want to set your camera and lens to focus on infinity in order to capture the big sky above. First, find a focal point in the distance, 70 plus feet away and set your focus. Then shift your lens from auto focus to manual focus. Don’t forget to go back and recheck your focus. Sometimes those things that go bump in the night just might move our lens out of focus.

What lens is recommended? To get as much of the night sky as possible, use the widest focal length lens that you have. Examples: 14mm, 24mm, 35mm. You want to get as much sky in the image as you can since the meteor activity is expansive. 

Any special tools? Absolutely. As we’re working with longer shutter speeds, we need to have our cameras on a stable, non-moving tripod. A remote cable shutter release is also suggested. Instead of touching the camera, the remote shutter activates the shutter button. Some cameras have self timers or exposure delay mode too.

What camera settings are best for night skies? Ah, this varies and it’s where we need to experiment based on what’s going on in the sky and around us. We’re working with a lot of darkness with some light. Therefore, we need to open our aperture as wide as we can to let in as much light as possible. Our shutter speed slows down while our ISO goes up. I’d start with 15 second shutter speed using 1600 ISO with your widest aperture (i.e. f/2.8 or f/3.5) and then work a combination of shutter speed and ISO all the way up to 30 seconds.

And if you’re with friends and family who aren’t interested in photography? Challenge them to a meteor star count.  

Parting thoughts? Don’t strive for just one or two perfect pictures. Take a bunch! The skies are changing by the second. 

Photos: Sheen Watkins