Few photographic subjects are as thrilling and challenging as a meteor shower. Watching streaks of light blaze across the night sky is spectacular on its own, but capturing that fleeting moment in a photograph takes your experience to another level entirely. The good news is that with the right preparation and technique, photographing meteors is absolutely achievable for any photographer willing to put in a little extra effort.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know to capture stunning meteor shower photographs. From planning and gear selection to camera settings and post-processing, these tips will help you maximize your chances of coming home with images that showcase the magic of shooting stars streaking across the cosmos.
How to Photograph a Meteor Shower: At a Glance
This guide covers everything you need to capture impressive meteor shower images:
- Step 1: Plan Your Shoot – Weather, location, and timing considerations
- Step 2: Prepare Your Gear – Batteries, tripods, and essential accessories
- Step 3: Choose the Right Lens – Why two lenses are better than one
- Step 4: Dial In Your Camera Settings – Exposure, focus, and critical adjustments
- Step 5: Capture the Meteors – The patience game and continuous shooting
- Meteors vs. Satellites – How to tell the difference in your images
- Major Meteor Showers Calendar – When to plan your shoots
- Post-Processing Tips – Stacking and compositing meteor images
- Frequently Asked Questions – Common meteor photography questions answered
Watch the Video Tutorial
Prefer video? Watch our crash course on how to set your camera for capturing meteor showers, or continue reading for the complete written guide with additional tips and examples.
[Related: Become a master of Milky Way photography with the complete SLR Lounge workshop!]
Step 1: Plan Your Meteor Shower Shoot
Before you worry about cameras, lenses, or exposure settings, the most important thing you can do is plan ahead. Meteor shower photography requires being in the right place at the right time with the right conditions. A little preparation goes a long way toward ensuring a successful shoot.
Check the Weather (Multiple Sources)
Start by checking the weather forecast to make sure skies will be clear. Instead of relying on just one forecast, check multiple sources using an app like MeteoBlue, which specializes in astronomical viewing conditions. Cloud cover can roll in unexpectedly, so having backup dates in mind is always wise. Even partial cloud cover can ruin an otherwise perfect meteor shower night.
Find Dark Skies Away from Light Pollution
Plan to find a location with truly dark skies, free from light pollution. Getting out of the city is essential, and you can use websites like Dark Site Finder to identify areas with minimal artificial light. However, there’s another consideration many photographers overlook: even remote locations can have distractions. Popular stargazing spots often have other people with campfires, flashlights, and car headlights moving around all night. Scout your location in advance if possible, or arrive early to claim a spot away from foot traffic.
Minimizing light pollution and atmospheric interference are your best friends when trying to get a clear view of the night sky. Deserts, mountains, and rural areas away from cities offer the best conditions. Higher elevations also help reduce atmospheric haze.
Consider Moon Phase
Try to plan your shoot for nights with minimal moonlight, ideally during a new moon or when only a waxing or waning crescent is visible. Moonlight can be beautiful for illuminating landscapes, but its brightness makes it difficult to see all but the brightest meteors. The faint shooting stars that fill the sky during peak viewing become invisible when competing with moonlight.
That said, don’t skip a meteor shower entirely just because there’s moonlight. The big, bright “fireball” meteors that make shower photography so exciting will still be visible to both your eyes and your camera. A partially moonlit night can actually create gorgeous astro-landscape images with illuminated foregrounds, even if the total meteor count is lower.
Step 2: Prepare Your Gear
Before heading out, there are critical matters of preparation that will make or break your meteor shower photography. Having fully charged batteries and a rock-steady tripod matters more than having the most expensive camera.
Batteries Are Everything
Your best chance of capturing a beautiful meteor photo isn’t having the best camera or lens, or even perfectly clear skies. It’s having fully charged batteries that allow your camera to shoot hundreds of photos throughout the night. Meteor photography is a numbers game, and the more frames you capture, the better your odds of catching a spectacular fireball.
If possible, use an external power source such as a USB power bank for mirrorless cameras with direct USB power capability, or a dummy battery system like the Tether Tools Case Relay for DSLRs. This allows your camera to shoot continuously for hours without worrying about battery life.
If you don’t have external power options, bring multiple fully charged batteries. Use a partially depleted battery for all your test shots and composition work, then swap in a fresh battery right before you start your continuous shooting sequence. Double-check that it shows 100% before committing.
Invest in a Sturdy Tripod
A big, heavy tripod is always better than a cheap, lightweight “travel” tripod for nightscape photography. Those wobbly tripods with five-section legs and multi-section center columns become almost worthless if there’s even a light breeze. When you head away from your calm suburban home, you’ll often find that optimal viewing locations are windy at night, especially on mountain peaks or in high desert areas.
If your tripod is lightweight or unstable, try weighing it down by hanging your camera bag from the center column, or set the legs at their lowest, widest stance. Sometimes laying the legs nearly flat and placing rocks on top provides the stability you need. A solid tripod like the Slik 700DX paired with a heavy-duty head like the Oben BE-126 gives you the rock-solid foundation nightscape photography demands.
Bring a Remote Shutter Release
A remote shutter release is your secret weapon for meteor photography. It allows you to capture photos without physically touching (and potentially shaking) your camera, and more importantly, it lets you lock the shutter button down so the camera fires continuously all night long. This “spray and pray” approach might sound inelegant, but when you’re trying to capture a split-second phenomenon like a meteor fireball, continuous shooting is the name of the game.
If you don’t have a remote release, many cameras have a built-in interval timer. Set the interval slightly longer than your shutter speed (for a 30-second exposure, set a 32 to 34-second interval) and let the camera run. As a last resort, you can wad up a small piece of gaffer’s tape, place it on top of your shutter button, then tape it down tight with another piece of tape to hold the button depressed.
Note that some Nikon cameras limit consecutive shutter fires to 99 frames, so you may need to use the built-in interval timer instead of a remote release.
Bring Multiple Cameras If Possible
If you have more than one camera, even an old beginner DSLR with a kit lens, bring it along with a second tripod. Setting up multiple cameras pointing in different directions dramatically increases your chances of capturing meteors. We’ll explain why in the next section.
Step 3: Choose the Right Lens (Or Two)
The most common question photographers ask is “what’s the best lens for meteor shower photography?” This is a great question because focal length and aperture both affect your results significantly. However, after years of experience photographing meteors, here’s what works best: instead of one “perfect” lens, you’re better off with two decent lenses on two cameras running simultaneously.
Why? Because meteors are completely unpredictable. You might point your camera in what seems like the optimal direction, only to watch the biggest, brightest meteor of the night streak through the sky just outside your frame. Even with an ultra-wide lens, this happens constantly. Setting up two or three cameras pointing in different directions nearly doubles or triples your meteor capture rate.
Nikon D700, Nikon 8mm f/2.8 Circular Fisheye capturing the entire night sky in a single frame
Aperture Matters More Than Focal Length
You can photograph meteors with almost any lens as long as it has a relatively fast aperture. Ideally, you want f/2.8 or faster (f/2, f/1.8, f/1.4). That said, even an f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom or f/4 zoom can capture the incredibly bright fireballs that make meteor showers so spectacular. A slower lens might miss the faint meteors, but it’s more than capable of catching the show-stopping bright ones.
The most important thing isn’t where you point your lens to capture the most meteors. It’s patience and endurance. Point your camera in any direction with a creative composition, lock down that remote shutter release, and wait for meteors to appear in your frame.
Point Toward the Radiant (But Not Directly At It)
Each meteor shower is named after the constellation from which its meteors appear to originate, called the “radiant point.” For example, Perseid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus. Pointing your main camera in the general direction of the radiant increases your chances of capturing meteors, though you don’t want to aim directly at it since meteors appear to have longer trails the farther they are from the radiant.
Finding constellations is easy with apps like Stellarium or SkyView. Just point your phone at the sky to identify where the radiant will be.
Recommended Lenses for Meteor Photography
If you’re looking to invest in glass specifically for nightscape and meteor photography, here are some excellent options across different price ranges:
Ultra-Wide Zooms (Full Frame):
- Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG Art ($1,200-1,400)
- Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L ($2,200)
- Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 ($899)
Wide Primes (Full Frame):
- Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG Art ($1,599)
- Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM ($1,398)
- Sony 20mm f/1.8 G ($898)
- Nikon Z 20mm f/1.8 S ($1,046)
Budget-Friendly Options:
APS-C/Crop Sensor Options:
- Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8 ($499-529)
- Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art ($679)
- Rokinon 12mm f/2 ($279-329)
Step 4: Dial In Your Camera Settings and Focus
Now for the exciting part: camera settings. Getting your exposure right is critical for meteor photography, but it’s more straightforward than you might think.
Recommended Starting Settings
Aperture: Start with the widest aperture your lens allows, such as f/2.8, f/2, f/1.8, or f/1.4. Faster apertures capture more light in less time and make fainter meteors visible.
ISO: Use a high ISO, typically between 1600 and 6400 depending on your camera’s noise performance and how much image noise you’re willing to accept. Full-frame cameras can often push to ISO 6400 or even 12800 while maintaining acceptable quality.
Shutter Speed: Use a long exposure, typically 15 to 30 seconds. This last setting varies depending on your lens focal length, moonlight conditions, and ambient light pollution. In suburban areas with light pollution, you might need shorter exposures around 15 seconds. In truly dark locations, you can extend to 30 seconds or longer.
Whatever shutter speed you choose doesn’t affect your chances of catching a meteor because you’ll be shooting continuously all night. The goal is finding an exposure that properly exposes your scene.
Always Check Your Histogram
The most important thing you can do is check your histogram to confirm your exposure is correct. Don’t just look at the image on your LCD and assume it looks good. In the pitch darkness of your remote viewing location, your LCD will seem painfully bright to your dark-adapted eyes. It’s extremely common for this to lead to underexposed images when you review them later.
Your histogram should show data pushed toward the right side (bright) without clipping the highlights. Most camera light meters are completely unreliable at night, especially during a new moon, so the histogram is your only trustworthy guide.
[Want to learn more about perfect exposures for nightscapes? Check out our detailed guide!]
Focus for Sharp Stars
Getting sharp focus on stars is one of the trickiest parts of night photography. Many modern lenses don’t have a physical infinity mark, and even those with digital focus scales often aren’t accurate. The infinity symbol on your lens doesn’t guarantee perfect star focus.
The best method is to point your camera at the brightest star or planet visible in the sky and focus using magnified live view. Zoom in to 5x or 10x magnification and manually adjust focus until the star appears as a tight pinpoint rather than a fuzzy blob. Make sure your lens is switched to manual focus so nothing changes when you start shooting.
The good news about star photography is that stars are always at infinity, so once you find perfect focus for one star, every star will be sharp. However, dramatic temperature changes throughout the night can cause focus to shift slightly, so it’s worth checking focus periodically.
Critical Camera Settings Checklist
Before you start your continuous shooting sequence, run through this checklist:
- Set drive mode to continuous shooting
- Turn off image review/playback (prevents LCD from lighting up between shots)
- Turn off autofocus (use manual focus locked at infinity)
- Turn off image stabilization (both in-body and in-lens)
- Turn down LCD brightness as low as possible (protects your night vision)
- Verify battery is fully charged
- Confirm memory card has enough space for hundreds of images
- Cover any blinking LED lights on your camera with tape
Why You Must Turn Off Stabilization
This is one thing many photographers forget, and it can ruin an entire night’s work. When shooting on a tripod with long exposures, image stabilization systems can actually introduce blur because they try to correct for movement that doesn’t exist. Your images may turn out half blurry and half sharp because sometimes the stabilization held still, but other times it tried to compensate and moved. Save yourself the frustration and trust your sturdy tripod. Turn stabilization off.
Step 5: Sit Back and Let Your Cameras Run
This is what all your preparation has been leading to. The best way to capture meteors is to frame your composition, start the camera shooting continuously, and let it run for hours. Sometimes a single composition will capture a dozen meteors or more over the course of two to three hours. Other times, you might be lucky to catch just one spectacular fireball.
Canon 60D, Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC Art | 30 sec, f/1.8, ISO 3200 (3 hours worth of meteors layered onto one 30-sec base image)
Whether you have one camera or three, get them all set up and clicking. Then sit back, relax, and watch the night sky. The best part of photographing a meteor shower is actually watching the meteors themselves with your own eyes. Let your cameras do the work while you enjoy the show.
Once you start your timelapse or continuous shooting, stick around and listen for a few “clicks” to ensure your camera is firing consistently and not skipping shots. Then triple-check your focus, battery level, and memory card space before walking away.
Nikon Z7, Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S | 8 sec, f/1.8, ISO 12800 – Even telephoto lenses can capture impressive meteors
Meteors vs. Satellites: How to Tell the Difference
When you review your images the next day, you’ll likely find streaks of light that aren’t meteors. Learning to distinguish between meteors, satellites, and airplanes will help you identify your best shots.
A very large “green fireball” meteor. Green is actually a very common color for bright meteors. Image by Sean Goebel.
Meteor Characteristics
Meteors appear as a single streak that’s often brighter at one end and tapers toward the other. They can show color variations (green, blue, orange) and may have a slightly irregular or textured appearance. Bright fireballs sometimes leave a visible trail or “smoke” that persists briefly after the meteor itself has vanished. Meteors only last a fraction of a second to a few seconds at most.
Close-up showing what a meteor looks like: a single, tapered tail that’s brighter at one end
Satellite Characteristics
Satellites appear as perfectly straight, uniform lines across the frame. They maintain consistent brightness from end to end (unlike meteors which taper). Iridium satellite flares are an exception: they start dim, flare to extreme brightness, then fade again, creating a distinctive bright spot in the middle of the trail.
An Iridium satellite flare showing the distinctive bright center. Read more about satellite flares here.
Airplane Characteristics
Airplanes typically appear as dotted or dashed lines because their blinking navigation lights create a series of bright spots rather than a continuous streak. They also move more slowly than meteors, so their trails extend across more of your frame during a 30-second exposure.
Major Meteor Showers Calendar
While sporadic meteors can appear any night of the year, major meteor showers offer the best opportunities for photography. Here are the most reliable annual showers worth planning for:
Quadrantids (January 3-4): One of the strongest showers with up to 120 meteors per hour at peak, but with a very narrow window of just a few hours.
Lyrids (April 21-22): A moderate shower producing 15-20 meteors per hour, known for occasional bright fireballs.
Eta Aquariids (May 5-6): Best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, this shower produces 30-60 meteors per hour with fast-moving streaks.
Perseids (August 11-13): The most popular shower for Northern Hemisphere observers, delivering 60-100 meteors per hour including many bright fireballs. Warm summer weather makes this shower comfortable to photograph.
Orionids (October 20-21): A moderate shower with 20-25 meteors per hour, known for fast meteors and occasional fireballs.
Leonids (November 16-17): Typically produces 15-20 meteors per hour, but occasionally produces spectacular meteor storms.
Geminids (December 13-14): Considered the king of meteor showers, producing up to 150 multicolored meteors per hour under ideal conditions. Cold weather is the only drawback.
When planning your shoot, check the moon phase for your chosen shower. A new moon or slim crescent creates ideal dark-sky conditions. Even the strongest shower becomes difficult to photograph during a bright full moon.
Post-Processing Tips for Meteor Images
After a successful night of shooting, you’ll likely have hundreds of images to sort through. Here are some approaches for creating final images from your captures.
Creating Meteor Composites
One popular technique is stacking multiple meteor captures onto a single base image. This creates dramatic images showing many meteors radiating across the sky, representing several hours of actual observation compressed into one photograph. To do this, select your best foreground/sky image as the base layer in Photoshop, then add each meteor image as a separate layer set to “Lighten” blend mode. This allows only the bright meteor streaks to show through.
15-second star exposure with one hour’s worth of satellites and meteors composited
Creating Star Trails
Your continuous shooting sequence can also be used to create star trail images. Stacking software like StarStax (free) can combine hundreds of exposures into circular star trails while preserving any meteors that appeared during your shoot. This creates unique images combining the motion of Earth’s rotation with the flash of meteors.
A single 30-second exposure (before stacking)
Multiple exposures stacked to create star trails. Click here for our star trail tutorial!
Frequently Asked Questions About Meteor Shower Photography
What camera settings should I use for meteor photography?
Start with your widest aperture (f/2.8 or faster), ISO 1600-6400 depending on your camera, and a 15-30 second shutter speed. The exact settings depend on ambient light conditions and your specific equipment. Always verify your exposure using the histogram rather than trusting how the image looks on your LCD in the dark.
Do I need an expensive camera to photograph meteors?
No. Even a basic DSLR or mirrorless camera with a kit lens can capture impressive meteor photos. What matters more is having a sturdy tripod, fully charged batteries, and the patience to let your camera shoot continuously for hours. A fast lens (f/2.8 or wider) helps capture fainter meteors, but any camera can catch the bright fireballs that make meteor showers spectacular.
What is the best lens focal length for meteor showers?
Wide-angle lenses in the 14-24mm range (full frame) or 10-18mm range (APS-C) give you the best chance of capturing meteors because they cover more sky. However, using multiple cameras with different focal lengths is even more effective than having one “perfect” lens. Meteors are unpredictable, and covering more sky area increases your chances dramatically.
How do I focus on stars at night?
Use magnified live view (5x or 10x) to focus on the brightest star or planet visible in the sky. Manually adjust focus until the star appears as a tight pinpoint rather than a fuzzy blob. Switch your lens to manual focus to prevent any changes, and recheck focus periodically throughout the night since temperature changes can cause slight focus drift.
When is the best time to photograph meteor showers?
Most meteor showers peak in the hours between midnight and dawn when your location on Earth faces into the stream of meteor particles. Check the specific peak dates for each shower and plan for nights with minimal moonlight. The Perseids (August) and Geminids (December) are generally the most productive showers for photography.
Conclusion
Photographing meteor showers combines patience, preparation, and a little bit of luck. By planning your location and timing carefully, preparing your gear thoroughly, setting up multiple cameras when possible, and letting your equipment run continuously through the night, you maximize your chances of capturing something truly spectacular.
Remember that meteor photography is ultimately a numbers game. The more frames you capture, the better your odds of catching a brilliant fireball streaking across your composition. Don’t get discouraged if your first attempt yields only a few faint streaks. With persistence and the techniques outlined in this guide, you’ll eventually capture images that convey the magic of watching shooting stars blaze across the night sky.
Take care, and good luck out there! If you have any additional questions or tips of your own, please share them in the comments below. We’d love to see what you capture!
