to all pug-sters- thanks for turning me onto the Leonid meteor shower. It was absolutely breathtaking. I would never had known of it's existence w/o u fellow pug-people.
i'm in northern riverdale, a small neighborhood just north of manhattan, ny. i thought about going to watch the showers in nearby van cortlandt park but opted due to logistics and warmth to go to the roof of my 14 story building. so, my wife and i got my 11yr and 8yr old daughters up at 245am. with sleeping bags and flash lights along w/layers of fleece, gloves and hats, and a small notebook to record my efforts, we took the elevator to the roof. this was my 2nd attempt and a nite shoot. this past summer i tried, and was somewhat successful, taking the stars rotating over el capitan in yosemite. i used my mx on a slik tripod, cable release attached. i went w/the A50mm/1.4 and loaded 400asa polaroid color print film. i don't have a cable release for either my pz-1p or the zx-m, thus the mx. (i've got to get one a b+h but keep putting it off for no reason other than i never remember till i need it) i felt confident w/the mx. though it gave me metering problems while in yosemite (which is why i bought the zx-m and pz-1p), i knew the operation of this mechanical camera and felt like it should perform as expected. it was a very clear nite, nice and contrasty. the lights of the city were evident. there was a wind which chilled all of us quickly. we laid out the sleeping bags and looked up. nothing happened. we waited, still nothing. i've never seen a meteor shower. i wasn't sure what to look for. in all of my life i've seen, maybe...3-4 shooting stars. so we waited. in the cold. in the dark. w/two young kids and a wife on a nyc rooftop. and then it started. it streaked across the northeastern sky a little to the left of the big dipper's handle. everyone pointed and oow-ed and aah-ed. then another. more pointing more sounds of approval. then another in this direction. more pointing, only to be followed by short blast of white-blueish light, followed by longer trails of greenish-white in the opposite direction. immediately, i knew the 50mm was a mistake. there seemed to be no pattern as to where the meteors would appear. and they lasted only a moment. so i set up towards the dipper and when i sighted thru the viewfinder wished i owned a 35mm or even a 28mm so i could have wider coverage of sky. (i've got to get a 35mm/3.5-lost out on a eBay bid only a few days ago and know it's the next lens i will buy.) focused for infinity, set it at 1.4, tripped the shutter, screwed in the cable release and waited for something to cross my field of vision. i went to check my watch to time the shot. i had left it downstairs. just great. i checked the cell phone which had an illuminated clock. and waited for one minute. i didn't have to wait that long. a short blue one tore down thru the upper right corner of the frame. i waited and counted ten then unscrewed the cable release and had my 1st shot. i was thrilled. i set up my 2nd shot. sighted thru the viewfinder but it was black. i took the camera off the tripod and pointed to the street lights below. nothing in the viewfinder. it was black. i took it off "b" thinking somehow that was connected to the problem (i know it's not but i was reaching at this point.) i told my wife i needed more light and headed for the elevator. i got to the stairwell and sighted thru the finder. still black. anyone guess what was wrong? i didn't know. i took the lens off the camera and looked in. it didn't look right. i tripped the shutter, and the mirror dropped back into place! it was stuck in the up position. i looked thru the viewfinder. I could "see" again. i was back in business. back onto the roof. sighted some stairs. tripped the shutter. it sounded right. and i was off and running. over the next 3 hours i shot the roll of 24. i sighted stars (to make sure the mirror didn't lock up), tripped the shutter, screwed the cable release and waited for a meteor to cross my field of view. sometimes it happened immediately. sometimes it took 3-5 cold minutes. at one point, i found myself moving the camera towards where a star had just been sighted. sort of like fishing where the fish used to be. but i plugged away. the girls pointed and oow-ed and aah-ed. and we were all thankful. everything seemed to move slowly. we, as a family, huddled under the vastness of a november evening. humbled by the enormity of nature. saddened by the pain of sept 11th. a neighbor of mine, Billy McGinn, whose family was only 3 floors below me, was a nyc fire dept leut. and a great guy. his fire station was 10 blocks from the wtc. he was the 2nd unit to get to the scene. he was buried a few weeks back. and there i was in the dark and cold. i was with my family and i was very thankful. my wife and the 8yr left after an hour and a half. me and the 11 yr old waited for dawn, saw the first lightening of the eastern sky as it turned to morning and headed downstairs. everyones now back in bed, asleep except for me. i'm waiting for my hands to get warm. i never did write down the exposure times. i need to remember and force myself in order to learn from my success and my miscues. maybe some of the shots will be keepers? i'll settle for one image that will let me remember the night. maybe i don't really even need that? i can't imagine every forgetting it. be well robo In a message dated 11/18/01 2:12:46 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << Leonid meteor shower could be truly spectacular >> - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. 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