How to Photograph a Meteor Shower: Settings, Setup, and Timing

A streaking meteor is gone in under a second — by the time you've reacted, it's already cosmic dust in the upper atmosphere. Photographing one on purpose, rather than by pure luck, comes down to a few unglamorous basics: a tripod, a dark sky, patience, and camera settings dialed in before the first meteor ever appears.

Quick answer: Here's how to photograph a meteor shower, step by step: mount a wide-angle lens on a tripod, open the aperture as wide as it goes (f/2.8 or faster), raise ISO to roughly 1600–6400, and expose for 15–25 seconds using the 500 Rule. Focus manually at infinity, fire continuous frames with a remote release or intervalometer, and aim near — not directly at — the shower's radiant.

• Lens: wide-angle (14–24mm on full-frame), fastest aperture available (f/2.8 or faster)
• Settings: ISO 1600–6400, aperture wide open, shutter speed set by the 500 Rule (500 ÷ focal length in mm)
• Focus: manual, set near infinity, checked on a bright star at 100% zoom — more than once
• Shutter trigger: remote release, cable, or self-timer — never press the shutter button by hand
• Framing: near, not directly on, the shower's radiant; roughly two-thirds sky, one-third landscape
• Shooting mode: continuous frames back-to-back for the whole session, not single exposures
• Sky: the darker the better — a Bortle Class 1–3 sky shows far more meteors than city skies

What Gear Do You Need to Photograph a Meteor Shower?

You don't need exotic equipment to photograph a meteor shower — you need the right basics, set up correctly, before the show starts. NASA's own guide boils it down to a camera capable of long exposures (most DSLRs and mirrorless cameras qualify), a wide-angle lens, a sturdy tripod, and a way to trigger the shutter without touching the camera — a remote cable release, a wireless trigger, or the camera's built-in self-timer — so pressing the button doesn't blur the shot, according to NASA Science. Bring a headlamp with a red-light mode so you can see your gear without ruining your night vision, pack spare batteries since cold nights drain them fast, and if you eventually want to stack dozens of exposures into one meteor-dense composite, a basic star tracker helps — though it isn't required to get started.

What Camera Settings Work Best for Meteor Photography?

Start with the "500 Rule," NASA's shorthand for the longest exposure you can use before Earth's rotation blurs stars into trails: divide 500 by your lens's focal length in millimeters. A 20mm lens gets about 25 seconds; a 14mm lens gets closer to 35. Dial your aperture as wide open as the lens allows — f/2.8 or faster is the range both Sky & Telescope and National Parks at Night recommend, since a slower kit lens around f/3.5 will barely register anything but the brightest meteors. Push ISO high: NASA suggests starting around ISO 800 and climbing from there, while a hands-on walkthrough from National Parks at Night runs ISO 6400 on a full-frame mirrorless camera paired with an 18-second exposure worked out with the more precise "NPF Rule." If a test shot comes out dark, change one setting at a time — wider aperture first, then higher ISO — rather than guessing at several adjustments together.

Which Lens and Framing Catch the Most Meteors?

A wide-angle lens — 14mm to 24mm on a full-frame camera — matters more than almost any other piece of gear, because it covers enough sky to actually catch meteors streaking past; NASA notes a wider field of view simply improves your odds. Where to point that lens is where photographers disagree. NASA's guidance is to aim toward the shower's radiant, the point in the sky meteors appear to radiate from (Leonids from Leo, Orionids from Orion, and so on). Sky & Telescope's astrophotography guide pulls the opposite direction: meteors captured right at the radiant tend to register as short streaks, while the longest, most dramatic trails typically appear roughly 90 degrees away from it. In practice, most photographers split the difference — framing the radiant somewhere in the shot rather than dead center, so the composition catches both the short streaks near it and the long ones farther out. National Parks at Night adds a compositional rule worth following regardless of which shower you're chasing: give roughly two-thirds of the frame to sky and one-third to an interesting foreground — a tree line, a dome, a mountain ridge — so the final image reads as a place, not just a star field. If you're working with a single camera, leave it locked in one position rather than chasing individual meteors; running two or three cameras aimed at different parts of the sky, a tip from Sky & Telescope, multiplies your chances of catching something dramatic without adding complexity to any one shot.

How Do You Focus a Camera on the Night Sky?

Autofocus hunts uselessly in the dark, so every meteor-shower guide agrees on this one: focus manually, and do it before the meteors start. NASA's method is to set focus near infinity, take a test shot, zoom in on a bright star in the image review screen, and nudge the focus ring in small steps until that star looks like a tight point rather than a soft blob. National Parks at Night recommends checking that zoomed-in focus at least four times before starting the real sequence — once is rarely enough when you're working by headlamp in the cold. Once you're happy with it, tape the focus ring in place so an accidental bump mid-shoot doesn't cost you the rest of the night.

Do You Need a Star Tracker — and How Many Shots Should You Take?

A star tracker isn't required to photograph a meteor shower — wide-angle lenses and short exposures mean star trailing isn't a major problem for single frames — but it matters if your plan is to stack dozens of frames into one meteor-dense composite, since a tracker keeps the stars pinned in place across every exposure while the ground drifts. What matters more than any accessory is volume: a documented National Parks at Night session ran for just over two hours and produced 325 individual frames shooting back-to-back at a roughly one-second interval between exposures, because most frames catch nothing and a handful catch everything. Set your camera to continuous shooting or use an intervalometer set to the shortest reliable gap it supports, start the sequence once full darkness sets in, and let it run uninterrupted rather than reviewing images between every shot.

When Should You Photograph This Year's Meteor Showers?

The best night to try this depends on which shower is active, but the next one worth planning around is the Orionid meteor shower, whose broad maximum peaks around 18:00 UTC on October 21, 2026 (roughly 10 a.m. MDT), per the RASC Observer's Handbook as cited by EarthSky. Under a dark sky, expect roughly 10 to 20 Orionid meteors per hour, radiating from a point in Orion near the red supergiant Betelgeuse that climbs highest around 2 a.m. local time. The complication this year is moonlight: a waxing gibbous moon rises before midnight on peak night and brightens through the week ahead of the full moon on October 26, so the best photographic window is the hours right after dark on October 20 and 21, before moonrise starts washing out the fainter meteors. If you missed this month's Draconids, our guide to the 2026 Draconid meteor shower covers that shower's own peak night and moon conditions — the camera settings in this guide apply to every shower on the calendar; only the date, radiant, and moon phase change.

Where Can You Photograph Meteor Showers Under Truly Dark Skies?

Camera settings only get you halfway there — the sky itself does the rest of the work, and that's where most meteor photographers are limited by where they live. Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa is a sustainable stargazing resort in Mosca, Colorado, roughly 18 minutes from the Great Sand Dunes National Park entrance, where three open Stargazing Villas sit under Bortle Class 2 skies at 7,600 feet elevation. In April 2026, Kosmos became Colorado's first DarkSky Approved Lodging property, a certification built around keeping skies this dark. Under a Bortle 2 sky, a wide-angle lens at ISO 3200 picks up meteors invisible to a camera working under typical suburban light pollution — the difference isn't subtle, it's the gap between a frame with one faint streak and a frame with a dozen clean ones. Every Stargazing Villa includes a Celestron Origin smart telescope and a 10-inch Celestron Dobsonian for the rest of the night once the meteor count slows, and guests who'd rather have an astronomer handle the technical side can book The Stargazing Tour ($129 per adult, $99 per child), which includes guided viewing, telescopes, zero-gravity chairs, and binoculars. Villa 4 and the Astro Lounge remain under construction, with completion funded by Round 2 of Kosmos's capital raise.

Frequently asked questions

What camera settings do I need to photograph a meteor shower?
A wide aperture (f/2.8 or faster), ISO 1600–6400, and a shutter speed set by the 500 Rule — 500 divided by your lens's focal length in millimeters — so stars don't trail into streaks.

What is the best lens for photographing meteors?
A wide-angle lens, roughly 14mm to 24mm on a full-frame camera, with the fastest aperture you can afford. A wider field of view simply gives you more sky to catch a meteor in, per NASA.

Should I point my camera at the meteor shower's radiant?
Not directly. Meteors near the radiant tend to appear as short streaks, while the longest trails usually show up roughly 90 degrees away from it, according to Sky & Telescope — so framing the radiant off-center captures both.

Do I need a star tracker to photograph a meteor shower?
No. A tracker only matters if you plan to stack many frames into one composite image; single wide-angle exposures of 15–25 seconds don't trail enough to need one.

How do I focus my camera in the dark?
Manually. Set focus near infinity, take a test shot, zoom in on a bright star on the camera's screen, and adjust in small steps until it looks like a sharp point — then tape the focus ring in place.

How many photos should I plan to take in one session?
As many as your camera and batteries allow. A typical two-hour session shooting continuously can produce 300 or more frames, since most meteors are caught by sheer volume of exposures, not by timing one perfect shot.

Can I photograph a meteor shower with a smartphone?
Only the brightest fireballs, and only with a tripod and a manual or night mode that allows a multi-second exposure. A dedicated camera with a wide-angle lens and manual controls will outperform any phone for this.

Key takeaways

• Use a wide-angle lens at its fastest aperture (f/2.8 or faster), ISO 1600–6400, and the 500 Rule to set shutter speed.
• Focus manually at infinity and verify it by zooming in on a bright star — then tape the focus ring down.
• Frame the shower's radiant off-center rather than dead-center; the longest meteor trails tend to appear roughly 90 degrees away from it.
• Trigger the shutter with a remote release or self-timer, and shoot continuously for as long as batteries allow — volume beats perfect timing.
• A star tracker is optional, useful mainly for stacking composites, not for single exposures.
• The next opportunity is the Orionid meteor shower, peaking around October 21, 2026 — shoot in the hours after dark before the waxing gibbous moon rises.
• Dark sky matters more than any camera setting: a Bortle Class 2 sky reveals meteors a city sky simply can't.

Practice Under Kosmos's Bortle Class 2 Skies

The fastest way to get good at meteor photography is to practice under a sky dark enough to make every setting in this guide actually matter. Book a Kosmos Stargazing Tour and bring your camera — between the astronomer-led walk through the night sky and the villa-grade telescopes, you'll have a dark-sky test bench most photographers never get to use.

Sources

• NASA Science — 10 Things: How to Photograph a Meteor Shower
• Sky & Telescope — How to Photograph a Meteor Shower
• National Parks at Night — Great Balls of Fire, Part 2: How to Photograph a Meteor Shower
• EarthSky — Everything You Need to Know About the Orionid Meteor Shower