How lunar conditions affect meteor photography
Meteor photography is straightforward in one sense: you leave the shutter open and wait. The hard part is light pollution, and the worst source isn’t the city on the horizon. It’s the moon. A full moon washes out anything fainter than magnitude 2, cutting your visible count by half or more. A waning crescent at 10% illumination barely matters.
The ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) figures assume a perfectly dark sky with the radiant at the zenith. Real conditions rarely match that. Under a suburban sky with a first-quarter moon, expect 15–30% of the listed ZHR. That’s still enough to catch fireballs, which is what makes for a good photograph.
The observation score combines ZHR and lunar rating to rank each shower. A high-ZHR shower under a bright moon can score lower than a modest shower under a new moon. Use it as a starting point, then check the sky planner for your specific location.