Meteor showers are one of the most dazzling displays in the night sky. Photographing meteors isn’t difficult, but it requires the right gear, a dark location, patience, and luck.
What are meteors?
Meteors occur when the earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by comets or asteroids. These small particles of ice and rock hit the earth’s atmosphere at high speed, burning up and glowing brilliantly. Slightly larger objects are brighter, creating a fireball as it enters the atmosphere.
When do meteor showers occur?
There are various meteor shows throughout the year, some more prolific and photogenic than others.
The Perseids are probably the best-known meteor shower for photography. They are active from mid-July through August, with peak activity during the second week of August. During the peak, there can be 50–75 meteors per hour.
The Geminids are typically the strongest meteor shower of the year. Bright, intensely colored meteors are visible from late November through late December, peaking in mid-December. The Geminids don’t get the same attention as the Perseids because they occur during a cold time of year.
Photographing at or near the peak date for a particular meteor shower gives you the maximum chance to capture meteor photos.
To view more meteor shower dates, consult an online meteor shower calendar.
Find a dark location
To enjoy viewing and photographing a meteor shower, you need a dark location with clear skies. Light pollution from cities will wash out all but the brightest meteors, so you must head somewhere away from city lights.
You also need to pay attention to the moon phase. The moon is exceptionally bright and will overpower many meteors. Pick a date with a new moon to see the most meteors with your eyes and camera. The more moonlight in the sky, the fewer meteors will be visible. You can still successfully photograph meteors with a dimmer crescent moon, but the gibbous and full moon get bright, and you’ll only see the brightest meteors.
If moonlight is in the night sky, it helps to photograph in the opposite direction of the moon, where the sky is darker. Partial moon phases may also have moonless periods. For example, the peak of the Perseids meteor shower in 2024 will occur on August 11. The moon will be pretty bright, almost a quarter moon, but it sets partway through the night, leaving numerous hours for excellent meteor photography.
Locate the radiant
Meteor showers all have a radiant, which is the point in the sky where the meteors appear to originate. For example, the radiant for the Perseids is the constellation Perseus, and the radiant for the Geminids is the constellation Gemini.
Photographing towards the radiant will increase the probability of capturing meteors in your scene. However, meteors will appear across the entire sky. Don’t skip an interesting composition if it isn’t in the direction of the radiant.
Gear required for photographing meteors
- Tripod: To photograph meteors and stars, you need a sturdy tripod. You’ll keep the shutter open for multiple seconds and must avoid camera movement.
- Super wide-angle lens: Meteors can occur anywhere in the sky, and your camera will only capture a small portion. A focal length between 14mm and 20mm is a good range for meteor photography on a full-frame camera. Because you are photographing in extremely low light, you should use a fast lens with a wide aperture, at least f/2.8 or wider, like f/1.8 or f/1.4.
- Camera: For meteor and star photography, you need a camera with manual exposure settings. A mirrorless or DSLR camera offers the most flexibility for long-exposure photos.
- Remote shutter release: You must avoid camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button. One method is to use a remote cable release, though you can also use your camera’s built-in intervalometer to accomplish this.
- Memory cards and batteries: You need plenty of memory card space and battery power to photograph continuously for multiple hours at night.
Pick your composition
Meteors will appear anywhere in the sky, but including a compelling foreground element will make your meteor photos far more interesting.
The foreground element doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be a single tree, a tree line, or a mountain. Calm water in your scene can be fun to photograph since you get the meteor and its reflection in your composition. Because you are photographing at a wide angle, ensure you are close enough to the foreground to give it size in your image.
Finding a composition in the dark is difficult. The best method is to arrive before dusk to scout your location and determine your preferred composition before it’s too dark.
Camera settings
Manual mode is best for meteor photography, as it allows you to set your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
- Focus: Ensure that you can focus your camera in the dark. Once you are focused, set your camera to manual focus mode so the focus does not change.
- Color temperature: The night sky’s neutral color temperature is around 4000K and a bit warmer when there is moonlight. If you capture the photo using a RAW format, you can adjust the color temperature to your liking during post-processing.
- Aperture: Set your lens to its wide aperture to gather the most light. On an f/2.8 lens, using an aperture of f/2.8. If your lens’ maximum aperture is f/1.8 or f/1.4, consider a slightly smaller aperture of f/2 or f/2.2 to reduce comatic aberration in the stars.
- Shutter speed: You want the longest shutter speed possible without star trails in your image. The longer your focal length, the shorter your shutter speed must be to avoid star trails. Also, the more megapixels your camera sensor has, the faster the shutter speed you need to avoid star trails. We use the PhotoPills app to calculate shutter speeds for spot stars, entering our camera and lens combination. For a 20mm focal length, use a shutter speed no more than 10–15 seconds.
- ISO: ISO sensitivity is directly related to your chosen aperture, shutter speed, and amount of moonlight. Typically, an ISO 3200–6400 range is appropriate for meteor photography. Don’t make your images too bright; you don’t want to blow out details on bright, fireball meteors. Check your histogram, which should appear like this for a properly-exposed night sky:
Shoot continuously
The only way you will successfully photograph meteors is to shoot constantly for many hours. It is impossible to predict when a meteor will enter your scene, and reacting and pressing the shutter is impossible when you see one.
There are two ways to keep your camera shooting continuously. Most remote cable releases have a lock to keep the shutter button pressed. Place your camera in continuous release mode, press the cable release button, and lock it so it shoots one frame after another.
If you use your camera’s built-in intervalometer, set it to take hundreds of photos and set the interval to the shortest possible, either 0.5″ or 1″ for most cameras.
Using a 10-second shutter speed and shooting continuously, you’ll capture 360 images per hour. To maximize your chance of getting a compelling meteor, photograph for at least 3–4 hours.
You’ll be out most of the night, so bring a lawn chair, coffee, and snacks, then kick back and enjoy the meteors with your eyes while your camera keeps shooting. You will undoubtedly see exciting meteors that your camera misses.
When you see an incredible meteor in your scene, resist the urge to check the photos in your camera. During the minutes you are reviewing your images, you might miss another interesting meteor.
Cull & process your images
At more than 300 images per hour, you’ll come home with many photos, maybe 1000–1500. Most images won’t have meteors, but be sure to zoom in and look around. There are often dimmer meteors in many photos. Pick the pictures with meteors and delete the rest.
As an example of what you might expect during peak meteor activity, we photographed the 2023 Perseids meteor shower on its peak night. We captured 2,550 photos. After culling, 166 photos had one or more meteors in them, a success rate of 6.5%.
You’ll likely end up with many images with fairly dim meteors, but if luck is on your side, you’ll have a fireball or two. Bright, colorful fireballs usually make the most compelling images. Having two or three meteors in the same frame isn’t unusual.
If you have a lot of meteors to choose from, one processing option is to create a composite, pick one base image, and then blend in more meteors, which can tell a story of the meteors you saw that night.
