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Geminids Composite from Urban, Light Polluted Neighborhood

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W5JCK

W5JCK

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Six Geminids meteors captured over two nights in my urban, light polluted neighborhood in the southwestern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. About 6 months ago the city erected a nasty brownish street light right at the front corner of my front yard, and that makes night sky photography even more challenging in my urban neighborhood. But I sat outside a couple of hours each night (Dec 12-13 and 13-14) and was able to capture six keepers. Unfortunately all the LP makes me have to darken the sky considerably during PP.

Fortunately this was a good year for viewing the Geminids. The last few years had been ruined by the Moon and/or weather conditions. Even in my Bortle 8 skies I saw probably three dozen meteors in just two hours during the peak.
  • Camera: Sony a7
  • Lens: Rokinon 24mm f/1.4
  • Speed: ISO 200
  • Shutter: 20 sec
  • Aperture: f/1.4
e366a209a9124023883e94889147daed.jpg


--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
 
Last edited:
That is outstanding, sir. Very nice, and shows extreme dedication.
 
Very respectable results under difficult conditions, Jack. I'm happy for you that your perseverance in both observing and photographing payed off!

cheers,
 
I only got 4, Peak night the clouds roiled in, but got 2 in evening before they did, clear last night and shot 700 images and only captured 2! so that petered out pretty quickly.. at least yours have color mine are white
 
I saw quite a few. I sit outside on my front porch every night that I can for a couple of hours before I go to bed. I usually just smoke a cigar, relax, think about things, and of course watch the southern sky. (Way too much LP to look N or E or W.) I had noticed quite a few Geminids in the days before the peak, even in the 9-11pm time there were 2 or 3 per hour, so I was pretty sure this would be a good year. So I decided to sit out with one camera the night before and the night of the peak. Both nights were pretty good, but the peak was especially terrific. Had I known it would be so good I would have put out a second camera covering a different area of the sky. I wish I had felt up to going out to a dark sky location, but I just didn't feel up to making a 200 mile round trip.
 
W5JCK said:
Six Geminids meteors captured over two nights in my urban, light polluted neighborhood in the southwestern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. About 6 months ago the city erected a nasty brownish street light right at the front corner of my front yard, and that makes night sky photography even more challenging in my urban neighborhood. But I sat outside a couple of hours each night (Dec 12-13 and 13-14) and was able to capture six keepers. Unfortunately all the LP makes me have to darken the sky considerably during PP.

Fortunately this was a good year for viewing the Geminids. The last few years had been ruined by the Moon and/or weather conditions. Even in my Bortle 8 skies I saw probably three dozen meteors in just two hours during the peak.
  • Camera: Sony a7
  • Lens: Rokinon 24mm f/1.4
  • Speed: ISO 200
  • Shutter: 20 sec
  • Aperture: f/1.4
e366a209a9124023883e94889147daed.jpg


--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
Click to expand...
Great capture Jack. I see you only use ISO200 is that due to the LP? And what about the 20sec. I already saw startrails at 12sec with my A7Riii...or did you used a tracking platform?

--
www.rutgerbus.nl
Photographic Moments
A photon only stops "existing" when it is captured by your sensor.
 
Rutgerbus said:
Rutgerbus wrote:Great capture Jack. I see you only use ISO200 is that due to the LP? And what about the 20sec. I already saw startrails at 12sec with my A7Riii...or did you used a tracking platform?
Click to expand...
 
BTW, using f/1.4, ISO 200, and 20 sec made for crappy sky images. But as I said above, I was trying to capture meteors, not the sky. If I use f/2.8, ISO 1600, and 10 sec, then the image will have the same general exposure level but will look a lot better as far as the sky goes, and they will be easier to PP the LP out of them without having to go to a black sky.
 
W5JCK said:
Six Geminids meteors captured over two nights in my urban, light polluted neighborhood in the southwestern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. About 6 months ago the city erected a nasty brownish street light right at the front corner of my front yard, and that makes night sky photography even more challenging in my urban neighborhood. But I sat outside a couple of hours each night (Dec 12-13 and 13-14) and was able to capture six keepers. Unfortunately all the LP makes me have to darken the sky considerably during PP.

Fortunately this was a good year for viewing the Geminids. The last few years had been ruined by the Moon and/or weather conditions. Even in my Bortle 8 skies I saw probably three dozen meteors in just two hours during the peak.
  • Camera: Sony a7
  • Lens: Rokinon 24mm f/1.4
  • Speed: ISO 200
  • Shutter: 20 sec
  • Aperture: f/1.4
e366a209a9124023883e94889147daed.jpg


--
Best Regards,
Jack
Click to expand...
Good to hear from you, Jack! And that's a splendid Geminid composite. It shows what can be accomplished under less than pristine conditions (an understatement, I'm sure).

That combo (A7, 24mm, 17mm aperture) really is a light gobbler. It has decent FOV with full frame. I really like the meteor and star colors.

Thanks for sharing your success with us.



--
Best Regards,
Russ
 
RustierOne said:
W5JCK said:
Six Geminids meteors captured over two nights in my urban, light polluted neighborhood in the southwestern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. About 6 months ago the city erected a nasty brownish street light right at the front corner of my front yard, and that makes night sky photography even more challenging in my urban neighborhood. But I sat outside a couple of hours each night (Dec 12-13 and 13-14) and was able to capture six keepers. Unfortunately all the LP makes me have to darken the sky considerably during PP.

Fortunately this was a good year for viewing the Geminids. The last few years had been ruined by the Moon and/or weather conditions. Even in my Bortle 8 skies I saw probably three dozen meteors in just two hours during the peak.
  • Camera: Sony a7
  • Lens: Rokinon 24mm f/1.4
  • Speed: ISO 200
  • Shutter: 20 sec
  • Aperture: f/1.4
e366a209a9124023883e94889147daed.jpg


--
Best Regards,
Jack
Click to expand...
Good to hear from you, Jack! And that's a splendid Geminid composite. It shows what can be accomplished under less than pristine conditions (an understatement, I'm sure).

That combo (A7, 24mm, 17mm aperture) really is a light gobbler. It has decent FOV with full frame. I really like the meteor and star colors.

Thanks for sharing your success with us.

--
Best Regards,
Russ
Click to expand...
Hi Russ!

Thanks. The 24mm is great for meteors on my a7. The street light is a royal PITA. Plus the neighbor across the street has a roof full of red Christmas lights. So lots of unwanted LP from brownish street light and red lights. I have to aim high to get them out of the FoV, but they still cause a lot of problems. Add in all the trees and I have a limited FoV these days. So I rarely do much photography from home any more.

--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
 
Beautifully done Jack! They look fabulous!

Best regards,
Rudy
 
W5JCK said:
Six Geminids meteors captured over two nights in my urban, light polluted neighborhood in the southwestern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. About 6 months ago the city erected a nasty brownish street light right at the front corner of my front yard, and that makes night sky photography even more challenging in my urban neighborhood. But I sat outside a couple of hours each night (Dec 12-13 and 13-14) and was able to capture six keepers. Unfortunately all the LP makes me have to darken the sky considerably during PP.

Fortunately this was a good year for viewing the Geminids. The last few years had been ruined by the Moon and/or weather conditions. Even in my Bortle 8 skies I saw probably three dozen meteors in just two hours during the peak.
  • Camera: Sony a7
  • Lens: Rokinon 24mm f/1.4
  • Speed: ISO 200
  • Shutter: 20 sec
  • Aperture: f/1.4
e366a209a9124023883e94889147daed.jpg


--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
Click to expand...
I'm impressed. However, since I also live in a very light polluted area I'd like to know you secret for getting a black sky. All my attempts have resulted in excellent images of the glow of the light pollution.

--
Landscaper
 
landscaper1 said:
I'm impressed. However, since I also live in a very light polluted area I'd like to know you secret for getting a black sky. All my attempts have resulted in excellent images of the glow of the light pollution.

--
Landscaper
Click to expand...
Thanks. Actually I prefer more of a grey sky than a dark black one, but I do have a high level of LP here so I usually wind up having to PP the nasty LP into a dark sky.

If you don't mind the really black sky though, you can adjust the Levels in an app like Photoshop. Just slide the left slider closer to the left side of the image in the histogram, then slide the right slider toward the right side of the image in the histogram, then adjust the middle slider to get rid of the LP. I don't like doing this, but it is an option. Just be careful to not clip the blacks are whites.

Below I'm posting the original out of camera RAW image I used for the background of the composite. The only thing I did was apply a lens profile and export it to JPEG so I could post it. I didn't do any other PP to it. You can see the horrible amount of brown, orange, and red LP I'm dealing with here at my house. Below that image I'm posting a couple iPhone photos I took last night that show the sources of my immediate LP. I combined these into one image. On the left image you can see the nasty street light with its brown yuk, and on the right image you can see my neighbors house lit up with a lot of red Christmas lights. Double whammy! To get the image I captured of the meteor, I shot between the two LP sources and tilted the camera up about 60°. As you can see I still ended up with a whole lot of yuk!

I have to PP the images to control the LP. I didn't really spend much time on the background in my composite as I want to take some better shots of the sky using f/2.8, 10 sec, and ISO 1600. However, I have not had a cloudless night since the meteor shower to take the replacement background photo. I have to make sure the time is close to when I shot the original so I can align everything properly. Maybe in a few nights I'll get a better photo to work with.

OOC RAW converted to JPEG (notice how the tree limbs are lit up with brown-orange light)

OOC RAW converted to JPEG (notice how the tree limbs are lit up with brown-orange light)

Street light at SE corner of my yard and Xmas lights to the SW

Street light at SE corner of my yard and Xmas lights to the SW

--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
 
Last edited:
W5JCK said:
If you don't mind the really black sky though, you can adjust the Levels in an app like Photoshop. Just slide the left slider closer to the left side of the image in the histogram, then slide the right slider toward the right side of the image in the histogram, then adjust the middle slider to get rid of the LP. I don't like doing this, but it is an option. Just be careful to not clip the blacks are whites.
Click to expand...
 
landscaper1 said:
W5JCK said:
If you don't mind the really black sky though, you can adjust the Levels in an app like Photoshop. Just slide the left slider closer to the left side of the image in the histogram, then slide the right slider toward the right side of the image in the histogram, then adjust the middle slider to get rid of the LP. I don't like doing this, but it is an option. Just be careful to not clip the blacks are whites.

--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
Click to expand...
Jack, which sliders are you referring to in PS? Under which command?

--
Landscaper
Click to expand...
Here are two screenshots showing the Levels menu and sliders. I suggest making the edits in a non-destructive layer though. That way you can edit the changes or turn them off if you want to. You can Google how to do that in PS CC or whatever app you use.

Step 1: Select Image-->Adjustments-->Levels from the PS menu.



Selecting Levels from PS menu

Selecting Levels from PS menu



Step 2: Slide the left and right sliders in the Levels popup to adjust image to taste. You can also adjust the middle slider.



Levels popup box

Levels popup box

Hope this helps...

--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
 
W5JCK said:
landscaper1 said:
W5JCK said:
If you don't mind the really black sky though, you can adjust the Levels in an app like Photoshop. Just slide the left slider closer to the left side of the image in the histogram, then slide the right slider toward the right side of the image in the histogram, then adjust the middle slider to get rid of the LP. I don't like doing this, but it is an option. Just be careful to not clip the blacks are whites.

--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
Click to expand...
Jack, which sliders are you referring to in PS? Under which command?

--
Landscaper
Click to expand...
Here are two screenshots showing the Levels menu and sliders. I suggest making the edits in a non-destructive layer though. That way you can edit the changes or turn them off if you want to. You can Google how to do that in PS CC or whatever app you use.

Step 1: Select Image-->Adjustments-->Levels from the PS menu.

Selecting Levels from PS menu

Selecting Levels from PS menu

Step 2: Slide the left and right sliders in the Levels popup to adjust image to taste. You can also adjust the middle slider.

Levels popup box

Levels popup box

Hope this helps...

--
Best Regards,
Jack
Website: http://w5jck.com/nightscapes-gallery.html
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden
Sony RX100M3, a6000, and a7
Click to expand...
Many thanks, Jack. This is a big help.

--
Landscaper
 
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