Help with Meteor Shower

[marian65]

First off let me say that I am a newbie and if I'm doing this all wrong I apologize in advance.
I want to try to get some good shots of the Perseid meteor shower tomorrow night so I went out tonite and took some practice shots. Here is one of my shots. My question is, why is it so noisy? If I speed up my shutter speed won't I lose the effects of the meteors?Thank you in advance for any help.
Here is the exif:
50 mm lens
exp. 30 sec
f-stop 1.8
iso 400
center weighted metering
manual focus

[z0mbina80]

oh wow. I'm sorry I have no advice to offer... I'm a noob too LOL but if you get any shots be sure to post them! That would be a fun one to see ^.^

[jojonac]

Did you take this shot with the D1x? If so then I would say the noise is from the Higher ISO setting "high for that camera." You will probably have to take your ISO all the way down to 125. Keep in mind the longer the shutter stays open on a digital camera the more noise you will end up with. The newer cameras today will take a 30 second exposure with the shutter open, and then take a 30 second exposure with the shutter closed so that it can compare noise and cancel it out. Im not sure what the D1x has for built in noise cancelation but if you are still having trouble you might look into some digital noise canceling software. Good luck.

[marian65]

Thanks for the advice Joel! Yes, I took it with the D1X I went back out around 4 this morning and took this shot and it looks a little better.

[jojonac]

that is much better for low noise. The next step might be to get a bulb release, so you can open the shutter longer then 30 seconds. Then you might be able to get more stars in the picture.