Tag: Star Trails

Bright Objects in the Night Sky — May 2018

The past two weeks have offered several opportunities for photographing the moon in the evening sky. Beginning on May 16, we had a crescent Moon with just 3.7% of the disk illuminated by the sun. During the months of May, June, and July, the thin crescent Moon lines up with the long axis of Upper Lake Mary. This results in nice reflections of the Moon on the waters of the lake—but only if there is little or no wind. The first two images were taken in the early evening with some reflections over portions of the lake. The image also shows the unlit part of the crescent Moon illuminated with Earthshine, also known as Da Vinci Glow. Yes, that Leonardo Da Vinci. Quite an amazing bit of scientific deduction on his part.

A thin crescent Moon above Lake Mary.
A thin crescent Moon above Lake Mary.
Crescent Moon with reflections on Lake Mary.
Crescent Moon with reflections on Lake Mary.

The following evening the Moon was located near the planet Venus. Capturing both of these objects and getting reflections in the water was a bit more difficult as they were higher in the sky.

Moon and Venus above Lake Mary.
Moon and Venus above Lake Mary.

Next up was the day-before-the-full-Moon in Sedona. Using The Photographers Ephemeris it’s not very difficult to determine at what time and in which location to find the Moon rising between the spires of Cathedral Rock. I’ve done this shot before but never get tired of traveling to Sedona to see it happen again. Not surprisingly, I often run into other photographers and friends with the same idea so it becomes a bit of a social gathering as well.

Moonrise above Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
Moonrise above Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
Moonrise above Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
Moonrise above Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
A couple watches the Moon rise from Cathedral Rock.
A couple watches the Moon rise from Cathedral Rock.

The first image shows the Moon having just risen into the left gap. The second image is a crop and closeup of the Moon. The third was taken several minutes later after adjusting my position a bit to capture the Moon in the middle gap. A couple can be seen in silhouette gazing at the rising Moon.

The International Space Station cross the sky.
The International Space Station cross the sky.
The ISS and OA-9 Cygnus move across the sky.
The ISS and OA-9 Cygnus move across the sky.

Finally, there was a transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and the resupply ship OA-9 Cygnus—both moving near the North Star. The transit is a 5-minute sequence of images while the star trails is a 30-minute sequence. The second image shows the bright ISS with the faint OA-9 Cygnus following behind. A day later, the OA-9 docked with the ISS.

Star trails and moonrise at Cathedral Rock

A few days ago I headed down to Sedona to try getting another set of images of Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy. Although I did get the images, I was unable to create a final product that showed the stars and the comet well. I suspect there was too much light pollution and it overwhelmed the delicate tail.

Star trails above Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona.
Star trails above Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona.

I also shot star trails with the camera pointed toward Cathedral Rock. The moon was still below the horizon when I started the sequence of images but rose above the horizon and illuminated the rock at the end. The result, after stacking and compositing the images was pretty good. But I was interested in trying out a popular technique of making the star trails look more like, well, comets. There is software available to do this but I was willing to do it the old-fashioned way using manual labor—at least this one time. The result came out well. If only the night sky actually looked like this!

Bright Objects in the Night Sky

It’s been a productive few days for taking nighttime images of bright objects in the night sky including planets, stars and satellites.

On June 1, 2014, a check of the ephemeris for satellite passages noted that the International Space Station (ISS) would pass very close to Polaris (i.e., the “North Star”) at 2204 MST, followed by an Iridium flare at 2231 MST. I set up the camera to take 30s exposures from 2202-2232 MST so I could get a set of star trails with the ISS arcing across the northern sky. Two satellite flares can be seen in the lower right — the one I was expecting plus a bonus flare.

 

Star trails with the International Space Station.
Star trails with the International Space Station.

 

Venus and Iridium flare.
Venus and Iridium flare.

A few days later, on June 5, 2014, for just a few seconds the planet Venus (mag. -4.0) was only the second brightest object (rather than the brightest) in the eastern twilight sky as an Iridium flare brightened to magnitude -5.7.

Four days in Death Valley National Park

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Although Death Valley National Park is only a six-hour drive from Flagstaff I have never visited the park. That finally changed the first week of January when we made a four-day visit. We left Flagstaff well before sunrise so that we could arrive in the park around noon time and then spend the afternoon visiting sites and hiking.

One of our first stops was the well-known Zabriskie Point. Many photographs have been taken here—as well as a movie by the same name—and these images should look familiar as a result. From there we went to the visitors center to get some ideas for the afternoon. We ended up on Artists Drive—known for its multicolored rocks.

Zabriskie Point.
Zabriskie Point.
Artist's Drive.
Artist’s Drive.

The highlight of the day was a late afternoon and early evening visit to Badwater Basin—a salt flat that contains the lowest elevation in North America (282 feet below sea level). The salt flats are noted for the hexagonal salt crust that forms after rains and standing water evaporate. We arrived as the sun was setting and began with the warm colors of sunset and transformed into the cool colors of early evening. Wonderful!

Sunset colors at Badwater Basin.
Sunset colors at Badwater Basin.
Twilight colors at Badwater Basin.
Twilight colors at Badwater Basin.
Delicate salt crystals, Badwater Basin.
Delicate salt crystals, Badwater Basin.

The next day started with a sunrise photo session on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Well, not quite sunrise—we were a few minutes late! The morning light was quite nice on the dunes but what I really wanted was sand without footprints. A bit of searching turned up this nice bit of pristine sand.

Morning light at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Morning light at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Panorama of Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Panorama of Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

We followed that with an afternoon hike up Fall Canyon (near the better known Titus Canyon). Fall Canyon is accessible by foot traffic only and has more of a backcountry feel than its neighbor. The canyon reaches a pour-over that can be passed with a bit of climbing and scrambling. This leads to a narrow, serpentine, water-polished section of the canyon that is truly magnificent. Hikers that turn back at the pour-over are missing a great section—perhaps even the best section—of the canyon.

Massive walls and slots of Fall Canyon.
Massive walls and slots of Fall Canyon.
Narrow slots of Fall Canyon.
Narrow slots of Fall Canyon.

We returned to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes after dark to stargaze and create star trail photographs of the night sky with the dunes lighted by the crescent moon.

Star trails over Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Star trails over Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

Another morning, another visit to the sand dunes and this time we were there well before sunrise. The temperature was probably around 40 degrees—which was fine as long as there was no breeze. There was a breeze. The sunrise colors on the dunes were spectacular and we were rewarded with these delicately sculpted dunes with beautiful interplay between light and shadow.

Delicately sculpted dunes at sunrise.
Delicately sculpted dunes at sunrise.
Morning light at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Morning light at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

After a quick lunch we went to Mosaic Canyon. This is a slot canyon best known for its smooth and polished marble. After a short hike through the marble narrows the canyon appeared to be blocked by rockfall but a bypass was possible to one side—and onwards we went finding another section of narrows.

Polished marble of Mosaic Canyon.
Polished marble of Mosaic Canyon.
The second narrows in Mosaic Canyon.
The second narrows section in Mosaic Canyon.

We paid a visit to the Furnace Creek Ranger Station to get some information and came away with some great hiking ideas. So, late in the afternoon we headed to Salt Creek. This is a running—albeit salty—creek through the desert. We were astonished at the marvelous riparian zone and wetlands formed by this creek. We finished the hike with very nice sunset colors over the peaks and reflected in the waters.

Salt Creek---water in Death Valley.
Salt Creek—water in Death Valley.
Sunset along the Salt Creek Trail.
Sunset along the Salt Creek Trail.

Our last hike was in the lightly visited Sidewinder Canyon. The attraction here is the many small side canyons that are exceptionally narrow and deep with little light penetrating downwards. Flashlights are useful here.

Narrow side canyon in Sidewinder Canyon.
Narrow side canyon in Sidewinder Canyon.
Salt flats in the south end of the valley.
Salt flats in the south end of the valley.

And, then, it was time to drive home. We very much enjoyed the days of hiking in pleasant weather in the middle of winter. I would like to return—soon—and visit many of the other wonderful locations in Death Valley National Park.