Well, it’s the Leonids meteor shower again, or at least the time for it, and since the skies looked pretty clear when I checked, I did a quick trip down to the lake to see what I could capture. However, once I got down there, the clouds rolling in were quite evident, especially well to the southwest as seen here. Still, the skies above were clear, and I re-aimed for a wider section among the trees and fired off some long exposures.
This was about a 3-minute exposure, with that bright ‘star’ at upper right being Jupiter, the tight smudge close to center being Pleiades, and Orion coming in right at the bottom. And the clouds starting to intrude. The meteor radiant near Leo still hadn’t risen at this time, but that often doesn’t matter – the meteors may show just about anywhere. If they show; I didn’t see even one. And the clouds, not visibly moving while I stood there, nevertheless were quickly taking over the sky.
And the planes were everywhere. Normally by about 10 PM they’ve nearly halted, but I saw at least eight while I was there, with three getting into my long exposures, like the one cutting through Orion’s Clavicle here. Since this was near midnight, that’s a pretty good amount of activity, though not at all welcome.
I did one more frame and then wrapped it up, not willing to wait and see if the clouds passed. As I type this after 2 AM, the sky here looks pretty clear again, but there’s too much light pollution in the immediate area and I’m too tired to drive back down to the lake for an hour or so of attempts. Maybe tomorrow night.