August 12 and 13 are the ‘peak’ days to go out and see the Perseids meteor shower.
The annual Perseid meteor shower is one of my most beloved events in the year. Maybe because it always happens at my B-Day. I have been trying to capture ‘falling stars’ in previous years but did not have much success.
Tonight I will go out again to a perfect dark place called Doldersummerveld. This belongs to the National Park Drents-Friese Wold near a small village called Doldersum after which the field was named (Doldersummer field).
Gear
Packing my camera, wide angle lens (16-35mm/f2.8) and my tripod. Just to be sure I wont regret it I will also take my tele lens 150-600mm/F5-6.3 (for pictures of the moon).
As this place is not too far from where I live I will go there by bike as a small contribution to being sustainable.
For those who are interested this is my route…
What to expect
There could be as much as 60 meteors per hour. A little sad is the moon that is in her last-quarter. Her appearance during the shower this year is very bright so this might wash out the meteors. The speed of the meteors burning up is 212.000 Km/Hour or 132,000 miles/hour.
I hope to see some ‘nice fireworks’.
All Sky Photo
The picture below was taken with my fish eye lens that captures 180 degrees in one shot (read more about the fish eye lens in my post here)
Update August 13
After a bike ride of 20 minutes and seeing at least three meteors I arrived at the Doldersummerveld. I installed my tripod and camera. It was so quiet and really dark. The moon came up just above the horizon and was really orange. There was a little bit of cloud cover at some parts. The Milky way was clearly visible too.
I brought my 600mm tele lens with me for the moon.
Meteors
I have seen some but not too many meteors burn up. Sadly I missed most of them on camera. But I was lucky to catch this one.
As meteors are moving through the vacuum of space they could travel up to 212.000 Km/Hour or 132,000 miles/hour. On impact of the atmosphere, the air in front of it compresses quick As the air is compressed, it’s temperature rises, heating up the meteor that starts to glow. The meteor burns up until there is nothing left. Temperatures can be as high as 1,650 °C ( 3,000 °F).
All sky photo with some red warning lights of windmills at the horizon left and a bright white spot on the right of the moon. The picture was taken near Middenmeer by Laura Fokkema
Are there any other Local Guides that will go out to see or even capture the meteors? The next few days there they keep coming more than usual.
Read more:
Perseid meteor shower 2020: When, where & how to see it Highly recommendable because of the perfect explaining video of the meteor shower.
Perseids from Wikipedia
(meteor). So have a look above, no need to wait 4 the 
. (Check caption). Yes you are a genius it was the fish eye but I did not take the picture en yes this lens was not in my gear. This one was taken 100 Km further away.
