Perseid meteor over Sutro Tower, San Francisco Aug 13, 2012
I set up the camera to take 8 second exposures all night and caught this large meteor as it streaked over San Francisco.
The lights near the tower are cars shining their headlights into the fog on Twin Peaks.
I happened to be checking on the camera when it happened so I saw it too!
Check out the EXIF info if you want to know the exact time, location, exposure, etc.
The Space Claw
Comments and faves
Nelson Minar, tony perrie, jhonlatorre, mooflyfoof, and 171 other people added this photo to their favorites.
jhonlatorre (9 months ago | reply)
:O Fabulosa
jrodmanjr (9 months ago | reply)
Holy **** that's a spectacular catch. Well done!
trophygeek (9 months ago | reply)
Thanks Jrodmanjr!
It was a bit of luck; however, I'd learned a good technique after trying to capture lighting:
I figure out the ideal exposure (8seconds so the stars don't streak) and then I used a camera timer set to trigger a shot every 9 seconds. So, the shutter was open most of the time during the evening.
I did see this one with my eyes. It was a very impressive sight. Unfortunately, the camera couldn't really capture all the little detailed bits of meteor debris as it fell.
Telstar Logistics (9 months ago | reply)
Was this taken from Bernal? Wow!
trophygeek (9 months ago | reply)
Both were shot from Castro Hill (between Castro and Noe Valley). If you zoom the map on the meteor image, I think it shows where it was taken.
Humm... I may have changed the map on the lighting to show the tower vs where the camera was.
D1.Xenotime (9 months ago | reply)
That looks good!
--
Seen on the explore page. (?)
Neticola (9 months ago | reply)
This is a stunning shot! It definitely deserves Explore. Have a blessed Tuesday!
Neticola.-
Via Today's Explore at #62 on Fluidr
jasonhawkins (9 months ago | reply)
This is unbelievably awesome, Bill. Nice job.
54StorminWillyGJ54 (9 months ago | reply)
Amazing !!
Terry -Pueblo Paradiso (9 months ago | reply)
Superb work!
fdmount (9 months ago | reply)
Great image.
r.AI (-) (9 months ago | reply)
Awesome shot!
KLNetherland (9 months ago | reply)
Awesome shot. It's awesome that you actually got one, Pretty friggin cool!
Texas Tongs (9 months ago | reply)
Great catch
Rachel Dawson Photography (9 months ago | reply)
Wow, fantastic capture, well done!
This photo was invited and added to the [Noctography] group.
HappyHorizonzzzz ;-) (9 months ago | reply)
WOW!!!
trophygeek (9 months ago | reply)
Thanks everyone! It makes staying up most of the night worth it!
aignes (9 months ago | reply)
Congrats on Explore :)
Via Flickr Explore
zot0 (too busy) (9 months ago | reply)
Excellent exposure - well done!
che2525 (8 months ago | reply)
Nice....it's hard to subtract all the ambient light when photographing the night sky in SF.
che2525 (8 months ago | reply)
I'd say 8 sec. is about right to avoid star trails. I did this one on Mount Tam last month at 15 sec. with a camera on a tripod. The trade off was color distortion after stacking and a horrific gradient as the camera registered the light dome of the City to the Southwest sector of the photo. I think I'll lower the exposure on the next round, Did you know you can see the Milky Way from Mount Tam? Great capture of the Perseids!
trophygeek (8 months ago | reply)
Wow. Really awesome shot. I had no idea you could see so much from Mount Tam.
Color balancing my shot was relatively easy since the base of the tower is white.