The Aurora Borealis put on a terrific show last night. I hope everyone got to go outside and see it!
Tag Archives: dark skies
The stars put on a good show too. I had hoped to make a blue hour blend but the app I had in hand, gave me incorrect information. It said the Milky Way would rise over the lone pine tree looking west across the lake but that is not how it happened. It appeared almost due south instead. I started making images around 8:00 and continued til 11:00 pm when the Milky Way was getting dimmer and air glow was increasing. Still lovely. And I had a warm campfire I shared with Luna. Sky prefers to go to bed early.
I probably need lessons in learning the night sky apps. They are not intuitive for me. Most night sky photos you see are blends or composites well planned out with the help of an app. Maybe I am too spontaneous to ever use one effectively.
I have been working on my night photography skills for a couple of years now and finally, have made my first successful panorama of the full Milky Way arch! I’ve watched videos, gone to classes, read articles and ebooks, trying to learn as much as possible. Many things I learned meant I needed another piece of equipment but I think now, I have it all put together. This is not perfect, that’s for sure but it makes me happy.
And I did it from my own home. I did not have to drive somewhere a long ways away to find the needed dark skies that makes seeing the stars possible. Of course, the foreground is not all that attractive. There are all the lights on the hills from the ever increasing populations of our valley, the local airport, some cars on the dirt roads after midnight, lights from the nearby church and a power pole. It is where I live and I am happy to be here.
This image is made from eight images stitched together and represents about 180° to capture the entire arc of the Milky Way.
I have more to learn but I feel like this is a big step forward!
The girls and I recently returned from an adventurous fifteen-day roadtrip to Nevada and Utah. Did you know that eastern Nevada has LOTS of really high mountains? Like 10,000 feet and higher? Really an amazing landscape. And it’s so large, we barely saw any of it. And it’s remote. Really remote. Sky had a medical emergency on a Sunday and I managed to get a large animal veterinarian on the phone and he said, ‘Lady, you are in the middle of nowhere. No one here can take care of your dog. You need to go to Vegas or Salt Lake City.’ We ended up going to Elko, but that’s another story. Thanks to the wonders of modern veterinary medicine, Sky is fine now.
Our destination was the Nightscaper Conference in Kanab, Utah. Ken flew down to explore the sights and wrangle the dogs while I was filling my brain with more information than it could ever hold.
Here are a few images from the trip down there.
It rained off and on all day yesterday and poured down hard in the evening. It rained so hard I could not see lights across the valley for a while. I don’t mind that. But then, I woke up at 2 am and the sky was clear and full of stars. I laid there for a while and finally talked myself into getting dressed, gathering my camera gear and going out in the dark. The dogs were confused and wanted to go out too but then they wanted in. Ken was out of town for work.
The moon had already set. The stars were uncountable. The night was dark. I ventured down the driveway and up the road a bit. I heard sounds of animals moving in the brush and hoped that none of them were cougars or angry deer. For the most part it was quiet except for the occasional vehicle on the highway down below. I saw a few shooting stars but none crossed my images.
When I was done, sleep eluded me for the longest time.
I’m still working on the process of processing these night sky images.
My Everyday Photos 