Visual Journey: Starry, Starry Night

Within the photography club, I started a Night Photography Focus Group. We met for the first time on Wednesday and immediately planned our first night shoot for Saturday at Fremont Peak. (If you follow my blog, you may remember that back in April, I climbed to the very top of Fremont Peak with Noella. http://visual-journey.blogspot.com/2010/04/ascent-od-fremonts-peak.html) No climbing or hiking on this trip. We timed our arrival to photograph the setting sun before heading up to the observatory. Normally flares are to be avoided in photos, but they enhanced this one by making the sun look like it was smashing into the horizon.

Actually, a thick shroud of fog prevented us from even seeing the horizon.

The edge of the parking lot was lined with photographers, sightseers, and amateur astronomers. As I was walking away toward the observatory, I glanced back, saw these silhouettes, pulled out my camera, and took this hand-held shot.

We had to wait awhile for the sky to darken, and found that even though it was a moonless night, the lights from Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Jose kept the horizon brightly lit. If you click on this photo, you will see the bottom three stars of the Big Dipper.

The Big Dipper is not a constellation. It is an asterism (a pattern of stars) within the Ursa Major Constellation. Click on the photos to see the stars.

The stars of the Big Dipper are often used to point the way toward other constellations. The two stars at the bottom of the bowl point to the North Star (Polaris), which is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. I was very pleased to get both dippers in one photo.

Fortunately, others in our group have photographed the Milky Way and shared their techniques. Capturing our own galaxy in a photograph was a stellar moment for me.

This was one of the most fun shoot-outs I've been on. I have mentioned in previous blogs how much I enjoy being out after dark. Others must have felt the same because several of the group seemed loath to leave. After four hours of photographing the stars, we started playing with our red lights. (In order to preserve everyone's night vision, only red lights are allowed.) This is a 30 second exposure of Lance painting the dark.