beginner advice

Hello, I debated posting this in "Beginners" but it seemed more appropriate here. I want to try some film astrophotography, but have limited equipment. I have a 6" reflector on an equatorial mount with motors. What I want to do is piggyback my 35mm camera with maybe an 85mm lens and shoot the meteor shower this week. I got a roll of Provia 400F slide film. I do not have a polar alignment scope or any kind of guide scope. I know I can't hope for correct alignment for any real long exposures, but what would be reasonable exposures to attempt with all my limitations? And, how long do I really need to leave the shutter open to expose meteors? Or is this hopeless considering what I have to work with? I also considered just putting the camera on a tripod and letting the stars trail to try to catch the meteors, but that's not my first choice. Thanks for all your advice.
Bill

Hi Bill,

If you are trying to catch meteors, then use the standard lens, not the 85mm. Meteors are hard enough to catch without cutting down your field!

How long you expose for will depend on just how dark your skies are. If you are in mag 6 or better, you can easily do 30 - 45 minutes. If you have much light pollution, then 15 - 20 minutes will be your limit. In any case, if you see any meteor that passes through the feld of the camera, stop the photo straight away.

If you are shooting piggyback, then you can use your main scope for tracking. However, if you are looking through the scope, you will not see any meteors!!! What I would suggest is that you set you camera going with the 50mm lens, and then every minute or so, check the tracking in the main scope. When you finish each exposure ajust the polar axis a little to make the tracking a little better.

Be aware that meteor photography can be a very frustrating business. They always seem to know just where your camera is aimed and manage to pass just outside. Also, with 400ASA, you will be limited to meteors brighter than about mag 1.

You can see a few of my meteor photos at: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/mclark/meteors.htm

These are the better ones. There have been many many rolls with not a single meteor! :-(((

Hope this helps,

Maurice