Nocturnal

Imagery of the night skies, from Milky Way to aurora. The light and colors that the camera picks up, which the human eye can barely detect, never cease to amaze me.

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McGown Peak Cloudy Milky Way

Although the astrophotography conditions weren’t ideal during my trip to the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho, that didn’t stop me from setting the alarm at 2am and return to a spot I scouted earlier in the day: beautiful Stanley Lake. The Milky Way positioned nicely over 9,860’ McGown Peak, but increasing cloud cover nearly thwarted my efforts. So bright was the last quarter moon, that I dialed down my ISO significantly to compensate, using an ISO of 1600, 15 second exposure, f/2 on my Rokinon astro lens. The shooting star photo-bomb in the upper left was a nice, unexpected surprise when I viewed on my monitor at home.
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Astrophotography Clouds Idaho Landscape Milky Way Mountain Nature Night Night Photography Reflections Sky Stars USA lake