The Perseid meteor shower (attempt) at Bective Abbey

Last evening, the bottle of red was almost open when Monika called while reading some article "Marcin! Do you know tonight is the peak of the meteor shower?"

After due consideration, I realised that in my 22 years of photographing, I had practically never captured the night sky, especially meteor showers.

Quick brain storming (location, least light pollution, nice foreground—love Bective Abbey), checking the weather forecast and gear settings, and we are ready to go.

As per a few articles, the best visibility should be between midnight and 4 a.m. When checked, cloud cover - 11 p.m., 25%, midnight - 30%, and with every hour getting more cloudy.

Shooting at midnight sounded almost ideal for me—it was already dark and only few clouds, adding a bit of drama and variety to the photos.

But thankfully, someone commanded me to be there earlier. When we arrived at about 11 p.m., the sky was already overcast and getting worse.

Quickly run from the parking, set up the camera, and go.

Managed only like 10 long exposure photos, of which only 4 are usable, before clouds completely covered the sky at around midnight. Caught only a few small meteoroid falls, but I’m still kind of happy with the results and will try it again for sure. Got a few new challenges - how to manually set the focus, barely could see anything through the back screen or viewfinder; composing the photos was rather dictated by time pressure, clouds, and arrangement of stars. Waiting for the next occasion!

Let me know what you think about the snaps.

Gear used:

Nikon d780

Nikkor 20mm f/1.8

3 Legged Thing Wilson 2 Carbon Fiber tripod

Edited with Capture One 23 Pro