Wonders of Our Threatened Night Sky
As the seasons change, so does the night sky, offering year-round views at which to marvel...if you can escape light pollution! I work to capture these views and share my experiences along the way. Every photo has a story…
Crop of my FIRST attempt at a 360° panorama ever. Shot near Valle de la Luna in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile in September 2024. Though the SQM read a 21.65, the skies were noticeable more enjoyable and dark due to the elevation and quality of atmosphere. Viewing this with my HTC VIVE Pro 2 headset is such a cool way to relive these experiences! 📷 Canon EOS R modded + Sigma 14mm F1.8 ART. 11 x 45sec ISO3200 F2.8 tracked sky panels & 12x45sec ISO6400 F4.0 foreground panels. Edited in PTGui Pro, PS, LR
"Slumbering Spikes Under Southern Sky" The silence this night was only interrupted by a welcomed 5.3 mag earthquake at 23:37. An unforgettable experience I shared with my parents during our first night out under the Chilean sky. Stack of 10 x 15s ISO 6400 F2.0 Rokinon 24mm F/1.4 Canon 6Da. Edited in Starry Lanscape Stacker, Ps, Lr
Milky Way Over Spruce Knob, WV. I shot this photo in June 2023 during a trip back to Spruce Knob after quite some time. Clouds cleared around 11PM allowing me to shoot this right on schedule with when the core would be rising. I chose a wide 14mm lens (Sigma 14mm F/1.8) just to be sure I would complete the image as I'm still new to and honing my workflow for Milky Way arch panoramas. Exif: Canon 6D mod, 14mm F/1.8 @ F/2.2 ISO 2500 75s 8x2 for sky. ISO 6400 for foreground.
Winter Milky Way panorama from West Virginia in late February. While I have a long way to go as of the time of writing, I'm happy I was able to pull this off. 14mm F/1.8 @ F/2.8 60s ISO 2500 tracked. Foreground 105s f/2.8 ISO6400
Around 3 to 4 am headed back to my car to sleep, I saw this vintage VW van and thought it would make a great subject to photograph. It's turned out to be one of my most popular images, even though the stars are out of focus (shhhh)! Sony a6300 Sigma 16mm F/1.4 @ F1.6 ISO 10000 15 seconds. Vertical pano of 3 landscape-orientation images
Panorama from Chiricahua National Monument, AZ. This area is located SW of Tucson along the NM and Mexican border and is apparently home to mountain lions and, very rarely, jaguars! Between Bortle 1 and Bortle 2 dark skies, it offered amazing views of the stars and Milky Way. The unique landscape of 'hoodoos' made for an otherworldly composition. The wind was strong, limiting my exposure times and making it a tough capture. The final full size image is 142 megapixels! Over 30 images stitched in PTGui Pro Edited in LR and PS. Canon 6Da 35mm F1.4 Sky: tracked 75 seconds ISO 3200 F/2.8 Foreground: 120 seconds ISO 6400 F/2.8
Chiricahua National Monument is a fantastic dark sky location in SE Arizona, US. I had one night here. This is a single 50mm frame of the Cygnus region of the milky way rising over a massive boulder. Note the nice red H-alpha emmisions from this part of the galaxy picked up with a astro modded canon 6D. Sky tracked 90s foreground untracked 2 minutes both at ISO 3200 edited in Photoshop.
Initial edit of August Milky Way near Courthouse Towers in Arches National Park, UT. A beautiful location which I only got one night to shoot in! 24mm. sky tracked 45" ISO 2000 F2.8. Foreground 90" ISO 5000 F2.8 edited in LR and PS.
Initial edit of Ursa Major (Big Dipper) appearing to rest atop The Tower of Babel in Arches National Park, UT. At the time, I didn't know this was a famous rock formation. I might've moved to get that bush out of the shot!
The dam pictured is located in Douthat State Park in Virginia, a park that is trying to gain 'Dark Sky Status' from the International Dark Sky association. This means the park has dark enough skies with little light pollution and is making an effort to preserve this state. This image is part of my efforts to produce some eligible photographs for the park to gain the certification. Pictured is the Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades cluster, and California Nebula. Canon 6D Stock with Rokinon 14mm F2.8. Sky: F/4.5 ISO 3200 3' tracked. Foreground 5' untracked ISO 6400 F/4.5
This raptor observatory on the border of WV and VA is a little gem. Containing quite dark skies to the NE, N, NW while being only an hour from my home. Three Image vertical panorama. Sony A7S 20mm F1.8 15s ISO 3200
A late September view of the Milky Way standing vertical in the dark skies of West Virginia. Vertical panorama stitch of four landscape images. Sony a6300 ISO 3200 16mm F1.4. 15s.
At a farm house in Buchanan, VA I took my first star-tracked image of the Cygnus region containing the North American Nebula. This is a stack of 20 images at 30 seconds each ISO 12800 20mm F4. Sony A7S
Cygnus Above Paint Bank. Went shooting with my friend and brought along my star tracker to do some testing on his camera and the A7R II I recently acquired. The camera suffers from noise reduction in bulb mode, but not as bad as my A7S. This still results in the stars having a bunch of different colors that I don't think were originally like that. This camera may likely be used to take super high res tracked panoramas, but will honestly mostly be used for daytime landscape and timelapses after my testing experience. 58s ISO 800 20mm F1.8. Processed in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. I was happy with the results here, but just forgot to take a foreground image since we were 'testing'
Green airglow highly visible against the completely dark horizon of the Atlantic from Assateague Island National Seashore. This was a CHALLENGE. The most difficult edit I have had to do on a stacked exposure of the wide angle Milky Way. I suspect this was due to he humidity and heat adding lots of noise both from my camera sensor and the atmosphere.
