We did some night sky photography on last month’s road trip. These are from two nights at our first campsite. I love how the sky changes as I stand outside in the dark.
Tag Archives: milky way photography
Have you ever been out in the dark and seen the Milky Way and shooting stars? Have you stayed out there for hours, watching the night sky revolve around you, or I should say, watching as you revolved around the night sky? If you can find yourself truly out in the dark, without extraneous light (not an easy thing to find), you will be amazed at what you can see, once your eyes adjust to the night sky.
Last week I was up late and had a great opportunity to photograph the Milky Way. It was absolutely lovely. And once my eyes adjusted, it was not truly dark at all. I love that my camera captured the air glow caused by ‘the light of excited atoms’! I also love how the clouds flirted with the Milky Way and I love the reflections of the night sky on the lake. It was a really lovely night and I was lucky to be there.
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.
My Everyday Photos 