One of the better parts of country living is the night sky. With minimal levels of light pollution, there is much to be seen in terms of stars and planets. Ever since I was in High School, I have enjoyed observing the sky. That means weather phenomena during the day and the heavens at night.
My goal for this summer was to capture an image of the Milky Way with my camera. I like to do things like that. Several years ago I bought a reflector telescope from a friend at work. Within a few weeks, I was calculating the theoretical limits of a telescope of that type and size. I then found double stars that would test the resolution limits. It was an excellent ‘scope and was within a percent or two of the theoretical resolution limit.
What could I do with our point-and-shoot camera? It’s a Panasonic that is now a few years old. It has a “night sky” mode that seems to work well. I’ve been waiting for a clear night when the Milky Way would be well above the horizon.
Monday was that night. The sky was clear, I consulted the star chart and went out with tripod-mounted camera in hand. I looked to the right and over the house I saw Ursa Major (the Big Dipper).
I noticed that the commercial air routes were particularly busy at that time. I moved the camera to the left and up and caught a couple in the next long exposure.
Can you see the dim one on the lower right side of the image? I never even noticed that dimmer trail until I was ready to post this image.
This was fun, but it was not the reason that I was standing outside under the night sky. Finally, I pointed the camera toward the constellation Cygnus (the swan). Then I pressed the shutter button.
I was not disappointed. I had to come back inside and open the image file in PhotoShop Elements to see what I had. I can’t say for certain, but I believe that there a couple of paths created by micro-meteors in this shot.
I had wanted to try to capture meteor images during the recent Perseid meteor shower. Unfortunately, that was a cloudy and nasty couple of nights. Perhaps I’ll try again next August. It should be interesting.
Those are great! I’m kind of jealous that you can get good night sky shots.
Very nice pics!
Very cool!! We don’t see that many stars here in the city. That’s something we do on vacation–we go out to just stare at the stars! I can’t believe what we are missing here. 🙁
You did very well in capturing those stars on film!
I remember camping out at 12,000 ft in the Andes mountains of Ecuador. The nearest lights were many, many miles away and at that altitude there wasn’t that much air above us. It was the most fabulous sky I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I had no way to capture an image. But I still have the memory of it nearly 40 years later.
Excellent! An evening well-spent.
It was a lot of fun and enjoyment too.
Amazing! A lot of photography is just patience and feeling free and confident to experiment. You did just that and got beautiful shots! I wish I’d been in the country for the perseid meteor shower. Even on a clear night, the city lights made it impossible to see so thank you for the starry nights you’ve shared. Happy WW!
I agree with your thoughts on photographic success. The rest of the story is that good photographers bury their mediocre shots. Delete those and nobody knows that you capture anything but perfect images.