Chasing Clouds

We were not at all sure how tonight would turn out. The sunset was good, but lots of clouds and they seemed to be getting thicker by the minute. We originally planned to stay in Arroyo Hondo where we viewed the sunset from and try for some Milky Way images. However, it appeared that the clouds were just getting thicker there.

We decided to change our location from there to out between the Rio Grande Gorge and Tres Piedras. When we got there, the Milky Way was obscured by clouds. We decided to wait a bit and see, and were rewarded. The clouds never totally left, but this band of clouds provides a break between the Milky Way and the light painting on the horizon from Santa Fe. Most likely a better photo because of the cloud layer which seemed to be blocking the light from below.

Taos County, New Mexico, USA, August 28, 2016. Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/3.5 for 30 seconds, ISO 3200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.

The Best Laid Plans

We planned to go out in the early evening, watch the sunset, go see some animals in the dusk, and then photograph the Milky Way after dark. The Milky way is currently high in the sky and the moon is below the horizon, making for really good conditions.

Unfortunately, a deep gray overcast settled in with rain, wind and no let-up in sight. That altered the plan for the evening substantially. We did drive over west of Tres Piedras and saw four elk and a handful of deer, but nothing we could get a decent photo of.

Just as the light was failing, we outran the storm and got this image of a beautiful sunset over Hopewell Lake.

Hopewell Lake, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, USA, August 27, 2016. Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 70mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/4.5 for 1/40 second, ISO 200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.

Perseids

The Perseids are a recurrent meteor shower created by the earth passing through the debris trail of the comet Swift–Tuttle. The Perseids are so called because the radiant, the point from which they appear to come, lies in the constellation Perseus.

The shower is visible from mid-July to late-August each year, with the peak in activity between August 9 and 14, depending on the particular location of the stream. During the peak, the rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour. Every several years, there is a "burst" event and the rate doubles or triples. 2016 is a "burst" year. They can be seen all across the sky; however, because of the shower’s radiant in the constellation of Perseus, the Perseids are primarily visible in the Northern Hemisphere. As with many meteor showers the visible rate is greatest in the pre-dawn hours, since more meteors are scooped up by the side of the Earth moving forward into the stream, corresponding to local times between midnight and noon. Some can also be seen before midnight, often grazing the Earth’s atmosphere to produce long bright trails and sometimes fireballs. Most Perseids burn up in the atmosphere while at heights above 50 miles.

This year the peak was the night between August 11 and August 12. Lauri and I decided to go out west of Fairfield to watch and try to get some images of the Milky Way and the Perseids. Most of our images were just like this one - not a bad shot of the Milky Way, but no Perseids.  Not that they were not around - there were lots of them, but not in the field of view of the camera or they were faint enough not to show up on the sensor.

Still, we did manage to capture a handful of images with Perseids in them. The first image, is so faint that it is easy to miss it, but the remainder are pretty good.

Fairfield, Utah County, Utah, USA, August 12, 2016. Nikon D5000, AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/3.5 for 30 seconds, ISO 3200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.

Milky Way

Lauri and I decided to go out west of Fairfield to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower and try to get some images of the Milky Way/Meteors.

When we first got there and got set up, the moon was still up and the light pollution from it was pretty severe for about an hour after it set. Eventually it did get dark and we managed to get some good images of the Milky Way, but the meteors were elusive! We saw lots of them,but most were either outside the field of view of the cameras or were not bright enough for the cameras' sensors to pick them up.

This is my favorite image of the set with a little light painting. Fairfield, Utah County, Utah, USA, August 12, 2016. Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/3.5 for 30 seconds, ISO 3200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.

Light Pollution

We thought that going up onto the North side of Mount Timpanogos would be the perfect place to get some good Milky Way images. With no moon in the sky, we expected it to be very dark. Boy, were we wrong!  It never got dark. We could clearly see each other all night long.

These two images were taken 21 days apart, while there are many differences, the most striking is the effect of light pollution on the image. You can tell the Milky Way is there in the second one, but the detail and definition is lacking - washed out by the light from the southern Wasatch Front communities.

Bridge over the Virgin River, Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah, USA, July 9, 2016. Nikon D90, Tamron SP 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II at 10mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/3.5 for 30 seconds, ISO 3200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.

Alpine Loop, American Fork Canyon, Mount Timpanogos Trailhead, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Utah, USA,, July 30, 2016. Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/3.5 for 25 seconds, ISO 3200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.