JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Was out fooling around with my Sony A6300 and a Sony 18-200 lens using electronic shutter and was just experimenting to see if this lens was any good for astrophotography or not. Suddenly, this very, very bright meteor streaked across right to left. I captured the beginning and middle of the trail, but my 15 sec exposure ended before the grand finale at the end was reached. The meteor was slow moving and really lit up the sky.

And Comet Johnson would be in this view, but shooting at only 18mm FL, you are not going to see it.

I identified several stars to indicate where I was aimed and how long this trail segment was. And remember, it continued farther to the left, which the camera did not record.

(Download)

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Cool Jim!
Almost looks like a Perseid in coloring.

Happen to catch the time?
I was on the Comet Johnson again last night.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

That image was at 10:36PM. And as you can see, I was aimed in the general direction of Johnson, but this was some distance away since I was doing 18mm on 1.5x crop body, or about 27mm FF equivalence. Probably more that 75 or 80 degrees FOV horizontally. This was a 15 sec image and I caught just before the end of the 15 sec as it clipped off the ending.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

I am just a touch jealous.
Very nice capture and even better that you saw the whole thing.
Very nice.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

That's very cool, I remember a few years ago I was going to photo a meteor shower, before I went out, I took the trash out and as I walked out I saw a huge one go across the sky. Quite amazing when you see it. Unfortunately, that was the only one I saw, so no photos.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

So common! I certainly wasn't looking for a bright meteor, and only taking a few test shots. And by blind luck, I got 2/3 of the trail.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

When out to Joshua Tree National Monument 2 years ago for the Perseid Meteor Shower, I didn't see nothin.
And I was knee deep in alligators with my telescope and missed the biggest meteor of the weekend. But I heard a lot of gasps across the camping area, and cheers went up.

I did set my DSLR up and let it run all night long. Then, going through the images, I discovered some flashes. Zeroing in, sure enough, I did catch some meteors.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Didn't have to zoom in on this one! Zoom out if anything. My shutter was set for 15 sec and this thing had to have flashed across the sky real, real close to the end of that 15 sec considering that I missed the grand finale, though my eyes saw it. As soon as it happened, my finger went straight to the display button because I was not sure at all that I caught it, and sure enough, there it was, the first 2/3 of the trail anyway. And it was bright.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

You might want to try one of these...
https://www.google.com/search?q=lightening+camera+app&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I downloaded the Lightening Camera App to my phone. And while I've never actually caught a bolt with it, it does come in really handy to turn back time.
Ever try to catch a kid and miss the moment? Well, besides lightening, it can go back a few seconds and get that shot. It fires off a 20 image burst and has a 3 second history.
I just wish it could be used with a real camera.

Oh, and for you iPhone enthusiasts... https://iphonephotographyschool.com/lightning/
And my sympathies.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I would hate to try to capture meteors on my cell phone. But the Sony A6300 camera that I was using can use an electronic shutter meaning that it can fire off pictures all night long without wearing out a mechanical shutter. Now the problem is that the meteor may start or end outside of the shutter time as in my example here in which the shutter closed before the meteor was done.

Of course another problem could be my lawn sprinklers coming on while it is faithfully sitting out there capturing image after image after image.

But capturing a meteor is somewhat of a rare event and long time lapses I have done have caught plenty of planes and satellite, but I don't recall any other meteors.

One other issue is that these cameras with electronic shutter count these silent captures no differently than full shutter captures. This means that a camera can ring up lets say 300K images, and if someone tests the shutter count, it shows 300K. But the electronic captures are not a wear out at all. So if it is time to sell the camera, its my word vs the camera's reported count and to have to convince the buyer that the 300K hasn't worn out the shutter.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Neat!

Excellent focus!

bwa

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Pretty hard to mess up focus with Sony cameras!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Very cool capture Jim. I'm really glad you got the shot.
Craig

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I've seen it done...

bwa

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Put it in my hands and watch things go to hell in a hand basket.