Uh, no card in the camera? Been there, done that.
Technique?
ISO 400 to keep the digital noise down
35mm 2.0 manual focus lens, set at infinity
Aperture? Probably between 2.0 and 2.8
Shutter speed, 15-20 seconds. And just keep shooting one after another for nearly 3 hours.
Theory?
Used the old 2.0 lens to gather light as quickly as possible, so that the stars look like tiny dots instead of streaks and the fainter meteors would show up. In other words, just as we see them. A slower lens such as kit 18-55 lets less light through, forcing you to use a high ISO for the same effect. An a zoom probably wouldn't be as sharp.
I chose to shoot the lakeside scene, despite the fact that brighter and more frequent "shooting stars" were overhead because light pollution was worse overhead and behind me. The lakeshore provided a nice foundation, or sense of place to the photo.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Originally there were three cameras set up, all pointing at various parts of the sky, and some were running as long as 2 minutes. Seems like every time the shutter would close and the camera was processing the image, the meteors would suddenly appear.
So essentially I said "Screw it!" Aimed all three cameras (35mm 2.0, 24mm 2.8MF, and a 17-35 2.
at the same scene, each one running 15-20 seconds each. As soon as one shutter closed, I opened the next, and then the next. That way we had virtually 100% coverage of the scene and the rest was up to the meteor. Did that for about 90 minutes. Boring as hell, but out of 300 shots (100 per camera), we got one.
Hope this helps!
