Planning JFK-LGA day long trip

Hi I'm brand new to this hobby (but have wanted to do it since I was a kid, turns out going for a graduates degree is a perfect excuse for the de stressing this way) , I want to shoot both airports and tried today, wanted to know if there are any times where the flights get stacked up? I found JFK in the morning was pretty pokey compared to LGA at around the same time.

I also Realize after looking at the shots i took today that I need to find a longer lens for my camera. Can anybody tell me if those mirror lens 500mm are any good? I have a Nikon D3s if that helps figure anything out.

Edit: here's a set of shots from today.

http://www.samdrivers.com/images/British121.jpg
http://www.samdrivers.com/images/Con...737-800LGA.jpg
http://www.samdrivers.com/images/AviancaLGA.jpg

Nice shots... I say the 500mm mirror is nortmally not a great lens, but given clear blue skies, your OOF areas will have little detail so it should look OK. If the above images were with the 500mm mirror, then they look terrific from here ;-0

Cheers!

Not sure what equipment you currently have or are using, but it all depends on how close you can get to the arrivals and departures. If you're a Nikon user.......I would say the following: 70-300mm, 70-200mm + 1.4 or 1.7 teleconverter, 200-400mm (which costs big bucks, is a monster, but is an awesome lens), or 80-400mm (which is a lens I just purchased this week......the focus speed is a little slow, but is tack sharp in my view). If you're a Canon user the lens of choice is the 100-400mm IS lens or the 70-200mm with a teleconverter as well.

For now I'm content with my Nikon 80-400mm. Here are a few shots from this past Friday which I took with this lens on a Nikon D300 body.

http://mbsphotography.smugmug.com/Av...6_qTCpu-XL.jpg

http://mbsphotography.smugmug.com/Av...0_CQNoD-XL.jpg

http://mbsphotography.smugmug.com/Av...6_svgzN-XL.jpg