Between the 11th & 13th August the perseid meteor shower will once again be visible. This will peak on Friday night when you can expect to see many metors burn up in the upper atmosphere. Its an impressive sight, and one that you can not only see, but capture on your camera, in fact you can get some great shots with only an iPhone!
You’ll need an iPhone 3G along with the Slow Shutter Cam app from Cogitap Software, its 69p and well worth it. This allows the shutter to remain open for a longer period of time, and hopefully catching a meteor. Just open App Store on your phone and download! (I’m sure that there are similar apps for Android phones too)
To take full advantage of this app I would recommend getting your iPhone set up on a tripod. I have been using an adapted generic (cheap) car windscreen mobile phone holder. I sourced the correct sized nut and glued it to the holder. I can then attach it to any tripod, although normally use a jobby gorilla grip on it.
These elements are all you need to use your iPhone to shoot great shots!
The settings I have been using to catch the ISS are
Capture Mode = Light Trail
Shutter speed = B (Bulb)
This should work for the meteors..
I would also recommend you enable the Screen Shutter function that allows you to tap anywhere on the screen to take a shot..
I take shots against (dark) sky only at setting ‘1’ – the most sensitive. If I had a lot of light in the foreground (cityscape etc) I might reduce the sensitivity a bit… but the only way to be sure would be to try out some test shots of aircraft etc and see what works best. Good luck!!
Hi, Could you tell me what sensitivity within the app would you use? it ranges from 1, 1/2, 1/4 to 1/32, 1/64
Thank you!
Sorry I don’t know