Perseids Meteor Shower, 12, 13 August

[lamborgini8]

Im confused about this one and have a few questions, so I thought perhaps someone here could answer.

The Perseid Meteor Shower this year should be on the 12th and 13th of August... But which time I am unsure as different sites say different. Would it be the morning of the 12th August, which would be tonight, or is it the night of August 12th, which would be tomorrow night?

My other question would be, which direction should I be looking? I have a clear view from my bedroom looking directly North and I can see clearly East and West. Where can I find the 'Persius stars' if I am thinking correctly? Where the Perseid Meteor Shower will be originating from.

Lastly, are there any websites or programs or anything that I can enter my location and it will give me the locations of planets and such from my position?


Edit:
One other thing, how exactly can I photograph stars? You would have thought a really low aperture F setting and a really long exposure time would work but looking on DeviantArt people use low aperture settings with really fast shutter speeds with the ISO at around 200.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

First question..depends were you live.

Second..you need a tripod that moves with the stars in order to get a clear shot. Also many people use Photoshop and other photo editing software to enhance images.

 

[lamborgini8]

First question..depends were you live.

Second..you need a tripod that moves with the stars in order to get a clear shot. Also many people use Photoshop and other photo editing software to enhance images.

I live in North London, I am well away from the city so I can see the sky easily and, if I let my eyes adjust, I can see a lot of stars.

Im not sure if a tripod that does that is worth the money since my camera's slowest shutter speed is 15 seconds. Do the stars move that much in 15 seconds?

I have photoshop but to be honest you still need a good picture to begin with.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

They move enough to blur. In Photoshop you can create anything. You don't even need a picture to start with. There are many Star brushes.

I'm in the North East US. The time for me is 12 AM to 5 PM tonight. They also run all day and part of the night tomorrow so anytime tonight should be good go you.

 

[lamborgini8]

They move enough to blur. In Photoshop you can create anything. You don't even need a picture to start with. There are many Star brushes.

I'm in the North East US. The time for me is 12 AM to 5 PM tonight. They also run all day and part of the night tomorrow so anytime tonight should be good go you.

Ah right ok.

Sorry if it sounds cocky but I am a graphic designer and I work with Adobe products... namely InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. I literally know them inside out, just from what I have learnt you need a decent image to start with to manipulate, of course you can create almost anything in Ps but I still think that photos of the stars would still beat computer generated images in terms if realism.

I was under the impression that it was from 12AM to 4PM here but you have a point there.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Typo...5 AM

Dont take me wrong. I dont think you are cocky. I am also a graphic designer. You can images from anywhere to manipulate. NASA for one.

 

[lamborgini8]

Typo...5 AM

Dont take me wrong. I dont think you are cocky. I am also a graphic designer. You can images from anywhere to manipulate. NASA for one.

Whoops, my message was meant to say till 4AM.

Cool, nice to meet another graphic designer actually haha. True, you can get images from anywhere but it all depends on your reason for editing them in the first place... If you copy a picture off NASAs website and edit it, then you would be infringing copyright. Ok, so the chances are they will never find out but in the end isn't it a better feeling knowing you have created the whole final graphic work from your own materials?

I did a project at college to create a logo for one of Googles events. As far as I know I was the only person to create the whole thing from scratch in Adobe Illustrator, whereas the rest of the class used images sourced from the internet.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I agree completely but as you know there are a lot of hacks. If you change an image over 50% there is no copyright infringement.

I must admit I do borrow sometimes, but art imitates art right? LOL

 

[lamborgini8]

I agree completely but as you know there are a lot of hacks. If you change an image over 50% there is no copyright infringement.

I must admit I do borrow sometimes, but art imitates art right? LOL

Really? I never knew that... so if I took a copyrighted image from somewhere and changed it more than 50% then no copyright claims can be made?

My turn now then, you may or may not already know this, if you take a font from anywhere and change at least one character then you can rename the entire font and claim it as your own without breaking any copyright laws. You could take Arial for example and change the length of the crossbar on the letter 'H' and then rename the font to whatever you like.

Most artwork is based on, or inspired by, something else, yes. The Google logo example I used above, I used the original default Google logo and font to create my own text in a cartoon style cloud. Maybe even the design of Internet Explorer 7? Don't the back and forward buttons look so similar to the ones on FireFox? Not to start a debate there.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Really? I never knew that... so if I took a copyrighted image from somewhere and changed it more than 50% then no copyright claims can be made?

My turn now then, you may or may not already know this, if you take a font from anywhere and change at least one character then you can rename the entire font and claim it as your own without breaking any copyright laws. You could take Arial for example and change the length of the crossbar on the letter 'H' and then rename the font to whatever you like.

I cant tell if you are being sarcastic or not. There is the "free use" law too.

 

[lamborgini8]

I cant tell if you are being sarcastic or not. There is the "free use" law too.

Haha, no sarcasm intended.

 

[Meatball]

Ok... so take central Nebraska for instance.. All I know at this point, is that they will be visible sometime tonight for about 7 minutes. Not a lot of time, but i Don't know when they're supposed to start. How do I find out?