Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

We still have time to mess this up!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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On the Road and In Your Backyard

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.

You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.

For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!

 

Today, pictures from valued commenter ?BillinGlendaleCA.

Starman Returns…

I’m sure you’re all tired of these boring old houses and buildings, you want to see Milky Way pics. Well, today is your lucky day(you really should buy that lottery ticket), here are 6(count ’em 6!) Milky Way pics and one of the Big Dipper. I’ve revisited 2 of my favorite locations(Twin Bush along PCH, and the Ol’ Boy Scout Camp Road in the shadow of Mt. Pinos) and a brand new location(Red Rock, where it’s really, really dark).

There always seems to be about a 2 week gap in when these pics are taken, that’s because of the moon. The full(or nearly full) moon illuminates the sky so much that it that it’s it’s own source of light pollution.

Milky rising at Twin Bush

Taken on 2018-05-17

Twin Bush, Pt. Mugu, CA

This is about as early as you can photograph the Milky Way as it rises this close to Los Angeles(Twin Bush is about a 60 mile drive west from the World HQ of BillinGlendaleCA.com).

Milky Way at Twin Bush

Taken on 2018-05-10

Twin Bush, Pt. Mugu, CA

I’ve cheated a bit here, the Milky Way is actually further to the right(south) and I’ve moved it to be able to get the coastline in the frame. For all these long exposures(even the ones without the star tracker), I shoot two pictures, one for the stars and one for the foreground and put them together in Photoshop. Usually I match up the foreground and background, in this case I moved the background(Milky Way) a bit to the east.

Milky Way at the Boy Scout Camp Road

Taken on 2018-05-18

Lockwood Valley, Frazier Park, CA

This is the Milky Way pretty close to after it’s fully risen, the one thing I’ve done differently is used my headlamp to illuminate the foreground(light painting) in the static foreground shot.

Milky Way at the Boy Scout Camp Road(fisheye)

Taken on 2018-05-18

Lockwood Valley, Frazier Park, CA

I’ve employed light painting in the foregound of this shot as well and there’s a bonus in this shot!
(ID’ing the bonus is an exercise left to the reader.)

Milky Way at Red Rock

Taken on 2018-05-19

Red Rock State Park, CA

Red Rock State Park is on Highway 14 about 25 miles north of Mojave. It features red cliffs and is pretty dark(if you travel even further north it gets really dark). It’s about 2 hours(one way) from the World HQ of BillinGlendaleCA.com. It was really windy up there(there are wind farms in Mojave) and I initially just took pics without using the star tracker and super long exposures. After a bit the wind died down a bit and I used the star tracker for a few shots. This and the following shot were taken using the star tracker.

Milky Way at Red Rock(fisheye)

Taken on 2018-05-19

Red Rock State Park, CA

Again, I’ve used my headlamp to light paint the foreground(next time I may try my car’s headlights).

Not the Milky Way!

Taken on 2018-05-19

Red Rock State Park, CA

This is a picture of the northern sky at Red Rock and you can actually see the Red Cliffs. I used my headlamp with an assist from the headlights of traffic on Highway 14 to illuminate the cliffs. You can pretty clearly see the Big Dipper in this shot.

 

Thank you so much ?BillinGlendaleCA, do send us more when you can.

 

Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.

 

One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Bill, those photos are breathtakingly gorgeous. I don’t often comment on your photos, but I really love your work.

  7. 7.

    David Evans

    I love those red cliffs, and the way you used the headlamps. There is nothing like those cliffs in the UK. That’s true of many other things, I suppose.

  9. 9.

    HinTN

    Yes, the bonus meteor streak is a lovely accompaniment to the majesty of our galaxy. Thanks VERY much for having this much fun and sharing, too.

  10. 10.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Standing Ovation
    stand·ing o·va·tion
    ˈstandiNG ōˈvāSHən/
    noun

    A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim.

  13. 13.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    @Baud: Ah, thanks. This weekend the Milky Way will be rising earlier and the Moon will be setting late enough to shoot again, Madame has agreed to be my photographic assistant*!

    *Not really, she wants to see the stars. Now I have to figure out how to occupy a 60 yo while I take pics.

  16. 16.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Van Buren: One of the other things I want to do this year is photograph the Andromeda Galaxy, that should be interesting.

    @Schlemazel: Ah, thanks. [shameless plug] These and others are(or will soon be) available at http://www.billinglendaleca.com. Though I’m a bit torn about folk’s houses. [/shameless plug].

    @Mary G: Yup, they are really nice in the daytime. We drove though there 5 years ago(last Sunday) on the way to Whitney Portal.

  17. 17.

    Cermet

    Well, tomorrow I leave to drive to Boston, to attend my daughter, Jeannette’s, graduation from MIT in their Physic’s program. MIT is rated #1 in the world in that subject so it is an amazing accomplishment to achieve. I am so very proud of all her hard work (countless 2 AM in the mornings finishing physics problems) and her taking the opportunity to work at a number of top tier world centers in research (Max Planck Inst. CERN) during her summers ‘off’ earning both a salary, honing her language skills (French & German) and doing both cutting edge theoretical and experiment work in that field.

  21. 21.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @HinTN: Please see Adam on the mezzanine level to pick up your prize. At least I’m pretty sure it’s a meteor, it doesn’t fade in and out like a satellite flare* or have regular more intense light like an airplane. That was actually captured on the fixed foreground shot, meteors don’t seem to show up on the sky tracker shots.

    *[shameless plug] I do have a pic that has a satellite flare(the Hubble Space Telescope) over at http://www.billinglendaleca.com.
    [/shameless plug].

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: (bows)

    @Elizabelle: Nope, their quite happy.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    I love that first one. The puny light of humans, no matter how bright, are no match for the light of the universe.

  29. 29.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @satby: Thanks! Glad you like the pics.

    @arrieve: I was looking at Google maps to see if I could find a place there with a more interesting foreground(the cliffs were north of where I was shooting and the Milky Way south).

    @debbie: The car lights on PCH are still pretty bright.

  33. 33.

    Mart

    @Cermet: Excellent. My dad’s undergrad in physics was from MIT. After he got his doctorate he worked on the Manhattan Project then spent most the rest of his life designing magnets for atom smashers. I thought about following in his footsteps, but my brain refused to learn calculus. When he explained it, even proficient mathematicians did not understand him. And to think his employer, the DOE, is run by Rick fucking Perry…

  34. 34.

    Mart

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Great pics Bill. Having experience with a 60 yo mate, bring some chocolates and flowers. After awhile get them out of the trunk. A little wink-wink, nudge-nudge to see if she is interested. Then join her in sleeping in the car.

  35. 35.

    JDM

    I’ve been taking some pretty good photos for 60 years now (used to spend all my allowance on film and developing) and I have to say those are very very nice photos. Kudos.

  36. 36.

    Origuy

    Great pictures. I’ve been to Mt Pinos at night, the sky there is gorgeous when it’s clear. Have you ever shot at Vasquez Rocks? I would think the rock formations there would make great foregrounds. It’s been the location for a lot of filming.

  37. 37.

    J R in WV

    Bill,

    Just another photog saying those sky photos are awesome!!

    Keep up the good work!

    Thanks,
    JR

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