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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Mount Lassen Milky Way, Reflection Lake

I’ve long wanted a worthy image of the Milky Way over beautiful snow covered Mount Lassen in the underappreciated Lassen Volcanic National Park. My previous attempts just didn’t have quite the right conditions. But, when planning my astrophotography outings for the year, I was excited to discover that Independence Day weekend would have a new moon, and a perfect opportunity to book a camping trip here to admire the incredible dark night skies and do some astrophotography! I found that Reflection Lake, rather than all my previous attempts at adjacent Manzanita Lake, offered a better perspective. It’s difficult at Manzanita to get a good spot of the peak as the shoreline is very dense with foliage, but Reflection had many clearings, with beautiful vantage points. As a designated dark sky park, Lassen and all her beautiful volcanoes, really can’t be beat! Word may be getting out as I noticed more astrophotographers here; but really, that count has gone up to about 10, up from zero just a couple of years ago!
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California Landscape Lassen Volcanic National Park Long Exposure Milky Way Mountain National Park Nature Night Night Photography Northern California Reflection Reflections Stars Trees USA lake summer