2017 Geminid Meteor Shower - Original pictures from the desert pt 1

A couple weeks ago was the annual Geminid meteor shower where I spent 5 hours alone in the desert to try and capture meteors.

Even though it is in the Arizona desert, at night, in December, the temperatures were a brisk 60 degrees or so, so I put on my jacket and drove a ways out of the city light pollution until it was pitch black. (I used https://www.lightpollutionmap.info which is an interactive light pollution map to find exactly how far you have to go to get away from the dull glow of cities. I chose the VIIRS 2017 satellite)

My first stop was a place I had been before. I walk maybe 100 meters from the road (which is an extremely winding 2 lane road through the steep hills with almost no traffic)

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 17-40mm @ 17mm
Shutter Speed: 25 secconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 1800

Got one! I didn't quite know where most of them were coming from, so I was guessing. You can see the light pollution on the horizon.

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 17-40mm @ 17mm
Shutter Speed: 58 secconds
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 2000

Starting to dial in the settings and get a better idea where most of them will be in the sky (so far they were random and all over the place)

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 17-40mm @ 19mm
Shutter Speed: 30 secconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 2000

I started incorporating more into my scenes than just the sky. I had a red head lamp on, which is why the cactus is red. I caught a nice bright one but it was too low on the horizon :/

It was after an hour or so alone in the dark, and the dead silence was very creepy - no wind at all, so the ONLY sound I could hear were airplanes many miles high in the sky leaving a very quiet noise as they slowly walked across the sky. Then out of the blue, about 10 billion candlepower lit up the entire rocky range in front of me as an of road pickup came out of hiding a half mile from me. He stopped by to chat, and said to be careful for mountain lions, as they like to hunt the boars in these hills, and the possibility of bobcats, but the coyotes probably wouldn't bother me. This freaked me out and I decided to leave this spot and head somewhere less creepy.

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 17-40mm @ 17mm
Shutter Speed: 30 secconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 4000

Single lane bridge, with city light pollution over the horizon. Luckily the best meteors were the other direction which was darker.

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 17-40mm @ 20mm
Shutter Speed: 40 secconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 1250

This is when I decide to start light painting to get the foreground better exposed. Caught one of the shortest meteors ever :/

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 17-40mm @ 20mm
Shutter Speed: 58 secconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 1250

I'm getting into my groove now, have found the best direction to shoot, and am next to my car for the rest of my shots, in case any curious kitties decide to investigate.

At this point its nearing midnight, and the meteor show has just begun. More to come in my next post :)