Waiting for the Leonids

[Big V]

Whilst waiting till the Leonids fired up (had to wait till 3.00am) last night I took this shot of Orion rising, which means the camera was pointing to the east. It was a lovely night but the Leonids did not live up to the prediction with only 4 spectacular meteor trails. So I called it quits at 4.30am and went home

[biggerry]

Whilst waiting till the Leonids fired up

Is that the shower that we could not see on our side of the planet?

The orion rising shot is nicely exposed what lens did you use? The reason for asking is the bottom left and top right trails appear to be curving different ways, is this due to the lens or is the planet on a wobbly?

[DebT]

I too am intrigued by the light trails in different directions ?
but love your work
DebT

[Killakoala]

North and South celestial poles on either extreme on the image. Looks fantastic. And it gives me a great idea for the weekend and a 10.5mm fishy.

[Chica]

Great photo!! I'd love to try star trails one day. Reminds me of a comment one of my kids wrote at school this week (writing about a trip to the planetarium).... 'I liked learning about Brian the Hunter' (errrr, did you mean Orion? )

[aim54x]

how many exposures for this one Virgs?

Great shot, shame about the Leonids

[DanW]

Fantastic shot! How wide a lens did you use?

[Big V]

I used the 17-40mm lens at 17mm. This was 36 shots each 5 min in duration. The curves are a result of looking to the south and north, so the celestial poles start to show up. When you look east or west you get straight lines,due south gets you circles and north gets you curves becuse from the south we cant see the north celestial pole.

[biggerry]

thanks for the explanation Big V