Category Archives: Night Sky

Night Sky, Photos, Troy's Blog

Stargazing

Whenever I’m in a dark sky area I try to take some time to enjoy the night sky. Part of that involves doing some astrophotography. Something I really enjoy and keep trying to improve on. There aren’t a lot of opportunities throughout the year to do this but when they appear, it’s a lot of fun. Early in the summer I was in Northwestern Minnesota searching for orchids. During the night I was hopeful fireflies would be scooting across the sky providing some nice entertainment as they flash their little green lanterns in addition to doing some stargazing. As you can see in the first photo there were some fireflies illuminating beneath the beautiful Milkyway. These were some of the darkest skies I’ve seen producing a sky filled with twinkling lights.

Watching the sunset

After a day of orchid hunting it was time to slow down and enjoy the evening with a quick dinner followed by a scouting trip to find some potential spots to take in the night sky. Exploring nearby Hayes Lake revealed some possibilities for a clear view of the beautiful night sky while providing some nice reflections in the calm water. With that accomplished, relaxation was on the schedule as the sun dipped lower and lower towards the horizon on this calm, comfortable summer evening. If only the mosquitoes would relent it would be a perfect end to such an enjoyable day. As I watched the sun prepare to set, I searched for a few different ways to capture it with the camera while watching people as they caught a few fish from a nearby dock. This seemed like the definition of what a summer day in Minnesota should be.

Storms out on the horizon

As the sun slipped below the horizon, its light began to shine on cloud tops off in the distance. Storms where in the area. Fortunately they stayed south for the night. A little more time enjoying twilight and I returned to camp to for a small fire while the sky grew darker and darker around me. Tempted to retire for the day, or at least take a nap, I resisted becoming lost in the flames dancing from log to log in my campfire. Almost three hours had passed since leaving the setting sun and the sky had turned from a light blue to almost black filled with billions of twinkling lights above. The fireflies began their nightly courtship display darting from one place to the next. Energy was again returning as I gathered my equipment for a night of star picture taking.

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Arriving at the first spot I scouted earlier, I set up the camera and began to work on focusing the lens while tweaking my composition capturing the night sky. I couldn’t believe how incredible it all looked with the first couple of pictures. How could I decide between looking up at all these magnificent stars, fireflies, meteors shooting across the sky, and satellites or remaining focused on capturing all of this with the camera? While the camera was taking the picture I would just look up to take it in as the camera needs about a minute while the shutter was open. Then I looked at the shot just captured before adjusting and taking another one.  The night was flying by and before I knew it, several hours had passed. My time capturing the bright lights shining above came to an end as fog began to rise from the water hiding the landscape from the camera. I didn’t want this night to end but was very thankful for the time available. Only a couple of hours now until the sun returns.

Fog was beginning to rise from the lake

Night Sky, Photos, Troy's Blog

In Search of the Perseids

Every August I like to go somewhere with dark skies to view the Perseid Meteor shower. For the last couple of years I’ve either ventured to the North Shore of Minnesota or Voyageurs National Park. This year I wanted to try something different so I began looking for a place in Western Minnesota. Blue Mounds State Park came up as a potential spot as the skies should be dark enough and I’ve been wanting to return and explore this park again. I visited this interesting park in 2014 and enjoyed my time there. Having a little familiarity with it would help in picking out a spot to photograph meteors flying through the sky so that would be my destination for this years Perseid’s.

A nice, clear sunset leaving a clear sky for stargazing

Returning from Isle Royale National Park in July left me pretty unmotivated because that was such a great experience for me but my vacation time was now used up for the year leaving me with little desire to grab the camera and go out photographing. All that was left were my homeowner projects which I really needed to get taken care of. I just didn’t have any desire to. Now a trip to see a meteor shower at in a beautiful place was on the calendar and my energy began to return even though it was only for a weekend. And not a long weekend at that. While planning this little trip and preparing my camping gear once again, a thought arose. What would the moon phase be during this meteor seeking weekend? Looking at a astrological calendar showed that a nearly full moon was expected with moon rise shortly after sun set. That won’t work! Should I still go? Somewhat deflated I settled on keeping my plans and decided to go anyway. Maybe there would be a nice storm which is something else I wanted to photograph over the vast prairie in this area.

Moon rising above the horizon

While driving to Blue Mounds State Park I explored some different options for taking advantage of the bright moon light. Where could I set up and get some unique photographs? The moon can provide some interesting effects to the landscape which I’ve been experimenting a little with. As the sun was setting I hiked out to a spot near cliffs of pink stone which hopefully will illuminate well from a bright moon. Getting into place and setting up my camera as the sky was becoming dark, I was hopeful for a few beautiful pictures. Soon after the moon rose above the horizon and my night of photographing began. I tried a couple of compositions from panoramas of the horizon as the moon broke above to placing some of the pink rocks in the foreground. As the moon rose higher in the sky I turned the camera towards the now brightened cliffs to see how the moon would shine off of those jagged rocks. The big dipper did cooperate and was shining just above the horizon above some of these interesting cliffs. Unfortunately I didn’t really capture pictures that I was hoping for but it was a fun night to be out there with the occasional pack of coyotes howling off in the distance. That is until the wind pick up!

A moon lit landscape

Night Sky, Photos, Troy's Blog

Taking in the Beautiful Night Sky

Getting away from the city lights from time to time provides an opportunity to take in a star filled night sky revealing a universe of possibilities which is always humbling for me. All of those things going on in life become brought into perspective as the whole universe is a good reminder of our place in it. I can stare into the abyss watching the stars twinkling for hours. Time seems to speed up as my eyes bounce from constellation to constellation occasionally being interrupted by a satellite passing by. Once in awhile there’s a shooting star if you’re looking in just the right spot. Often times I try to capture all of this with the camera but it seems impossible to accomplish. On this particular September night I wasn’t expecting an opportunity to see stars as rain and thunderstorms were forecast. At one point I looked up from an evening fire and began to see stars overhead. Continuing to watch more and more stars revealed themselves so I decided to grab the camera and begin shoot away.

After the first shot or two I really liked how the clouds made the vastness in the sky appear and enhanced the transition from the horizon to the stars. There are several star clusters and what looked like a possible galaxy which, unfortunately, is not clear enough in this picture to see but it’s the bright light just off center to the right. The light showing in the clouds to the right near the horizon is a rising full moon which I think is also a nice addition to the photograph.

Spruce tree against the night sky

Being near a lake it is only appropriate to attempt capturing this beautiful star filled sky reflecting in the calm water. Bordering the stars with a spruce tree seemed to be a nice contrast as well making for an interesting shot. After spending a little time just photographing the stars and watching them twinkle, doing some light painting seemed like a good idea. As it turned out I had quiet a bit of fun doing this and trying some different angles with a green light.

Painting the night sky

Light painting didn’t actually start out as the objective. Looking at the picture below you can see how I did it. A friend of mine wanted to do some night fishing and had brought along some bobbers with lights on them so I started to take pictures of his actions with a fishing pole and realized how intriguing it was in the photo. The fish weren’t biting so we began setting up some ideas to photograph and this was how it turned out. How do you set up these shots? Once the camera is in place and you can see the range of the landscape in the potential photo you can begin to direct where to cast for the lit bobber to really show up. Since night photography usually involves long exposures you have a little time to work with. Once the shutter button is pushed the model then begins reeling in the line and casting it back out in a different direction to get the light trail where you want it. For one of the photos I used a flashlight to show the process for a few seconds, turned off the light, and continued with the action of reeling in and casting back out in order to show how this can work. It was a lot of fun and something I hope to work with more in the future.

Painting the night sky revealed

Night Sky, Photos, Troy's Blog

A Meteor Shower on the North Shore of Minnesota

A few weeks ago the Perseid meteor shower was expected to peak providing a possible meteor every minute burning through the night sky. For the best viewing, the darkest sky possible is required so we took a road trip to the North Shore of Minnesota and settled in for a great, however short, astronomical show as a near full moon would be rising about an hour after total darkness descended across the horizon. As the sky grew increasingly dark I worked the camera to capture this annual event. Yes, the Perseid meteor shower occurs every summer near the beginning of August.

Meteor flying through the Milky Way

While taking in the meteors buzzing across the blackened sky I wanted to make another attempt at photographing the Milkyway as I’ve spent some time earlier in the summer trying to get a photo showing the arc produced across the sky by the Milkyway if there is enough darkness. Finally I successfully accomplished that with a photo that shows some of the amazing colors available in the night sky with the help of distant northern lights glowing on the horizon and a few city lights off in the distance.

Multiple Perseids

While photographing the Milkyway, many of these photos caught a meteor or two and sometime more streaking across the sky. They may be a little difficult to see in these photos but if you look hard enough, especially in the one directly above here, you can see them. I can see as many as four in the photo just above but the sky is a little too bright to make them out easily. Unfortunately the best ones were not caught by my camera. There were a few that crossed almost the entire visible night sky leaving a trail of light for more than a second. In what seemed like a matter of minutes the moon began rising lighting up the whole star filled sky making it much more difficult to see these meteors however the brightest ones still left a bolt of light as they flew through the universe. While this may not produce the same excitement as a total solar eclipse it is still worth trying to view on a nice summer night. Just be prepared for mosquitoes if they exist where you are.

Meteor falling through space