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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
My quests to shoot fall color in the eastern Sierra has not diminished my mission to shoot the stars. My second and third trip up to the eastern Sierra included an early morning stop at the Alabama Hills to capture astro-landscapes. The first thing I wanted to capture was the Zodiacal Light(this has nothing to do with Ted Cruz).
The Zodiacal Light is a band of light that shoots up from the horizon just before sunrise(it’s also called ‘false dawn’) in the Fall and just after Sunset in the Spring around the time of the equinox. It’s caused by interplanetary dust that gets lit by the Sun and can be seen when the Earth is at the right angle based on the season.
The other celestial objects I wanted to capture on my journey’s to the Alabama Hills(not named after the state, but the CSS Alabama), was an astro-landscape shot of Orion and Andromeda(M31). I first attempted shooting Orion on my third and final Fall Color Extravaganza, but the battery on my star tracker died and I had to defer both the Orion shot and possible Andromeda shot.
I did get one, one minute exposure of Orion out of this trip. I headed back up to the Alabama Hills for another attempt in mid-November with half the night moonlit to get some foreground shots by the light of the Moon and shots of the sky once the Moon had set.
The Zodiacal light to the east, the golden glow just above the horizon is from the Sun starting to rise. I posted this shot on Instagram and one commenter said the light was not the Zodiacal Light, but light pollution from Las Vegas which is 165 miles away.
The Zodiacal light again, this time about a mile to the north of the first shot. This was shot about an hour earlier than the shot above. The lights from Lone Pine are illuminating the Inyo Mountains in the foreground and you can see the light dome from Las Vegas to the right of the Zodiacal light.
This shot is a single one minute shot of the sky and high ISO test shot of the foreground. This area is where they filmed the temple scene in Gunga Din(they filmed a lot of movies in the Alabama Hills).
The foreground for this shot was taken at almost the same position as the last shot, but I had the benefit of moonlight and added some additional light painting to the mix. The stars were shot on the other side of these rocks since it has a pretty much unobstructed horizon.
The foreground here is at the entrance to the canyon of rocks where I parked, my car is behind the rock to the right. Again, moonlight was used to provide much of the lighting with some light painting in the lower foreground. The way I light paint is take many shots and light paint parts of the scene and then mask out the places where I’m in the photo with my light panel. Again, the sky was shot just over the rocks.
This is a composite of Orion setting over Mt. Whitney.
The Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies setting over Mt. Whitney. Andromeda is at the right, midframe, Triangulum is at the left, upper portion of the frame. Mirach of the the Andromeda constellation is the bright yellow star between them.
Cermet
Impressive photo’s; appear to have excellent sky conditions. No doubt you’ve said this before but what camera are you using? Any special lens?
SiubhanDuinne
Spectacular, Bill. The composite of Orion setting over Mt Whitney — wow!
I’m curious (if you even remember and want to share), which came first with you: your interest in astronomy or your love of photography?
Spanky
Just fyi, the Zodiacal Light is sunlight reflected off dust particles in the plane of earth’s orbit. Can be seen with the naked eye but is VERY tough. Need a clear sky, and look as close to sunrise/sunset as darkness will let you. Also, best time to catch it is Spring or Fall.
IIRC, it’s also the topic of Brian May’s PhD, both before Queen took up all his time and when he went back to it a few years ago.
M31
Great Stuff!
Benw
Great pics.
Should be an easy theory to test: we ask LV to turn off all their lights for a day and you try again!
lee
I’ve got a camera question. Hopefully someone in this thread will have an answer.
I’ve got an old D7000 that has served me well for over a decade. I’m not exaggerating much that I’ve probably take close to 100k pictures with it (mostly sports pictures).
It getting to a point now all the images are washed out. I’m guessing I need to calibrate or adjust some setting. I’m just not sure which setting I’m supposed to change. I don’t want to start fiddling around with it and make matters worse.
The other option (which I’m not opposed to) is to buy a new camera. I would like a lighter camera since now the camera is primarily used for vacations/hiking.
TIA!
OzarkHillbilly
Love that headliner shot, Bill.
rikyrah
These are so beautiful ?
BigHank53
A ten year old digital camera isn’t worth much, sadly. KEH will sell you a used D7000 with a warrantee for just under $300, and it would probably cost as much or more to have a repair shop re-calibrate the exposure system. (This is assuming the problem lies in the exposure calibration, and not, for example, in the shutter, which may be nearing end-of-life with 100k exposures.) I’d put the money into a new body.
Betty
Starstruck!
mvr
These are impressive! I think my favorite is the sparsest one at the end.
lee
@BigHank53:
That is what I was thinking and what little bit of research I’d done and lead me to believe.
I am thinking it is the shutter as for a while it would work intermittently.
I purchased it used so I’ve completely gotten my money’s worth out of it.
Jerzy Russian
I think you have captured the zodiacal light, since light pollution from a distant city would not illuminate the sky that high.
Zodiacal light is a problem even for spaced-based instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope in situations where low surface brightness objects are being imaged. It’s intensity varies with the direction so there are models for how to remove it.
stinger
How spectacular and gorgeous!
I did not know about the Zodiacal Light. I wish I did not know about Ted Cruz.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cermet: I use a Samsung NX1(APS-C) camera. The kit lens(16-50mm zoom f/2-f2.8) was used for the Zodiacal light shots and the first Orion shot. I used at 20mm prime lens(f2.8) for the second Orion shots and the 45mm prime(f/1.8) for the galaxies shot.
I get around some of the limitations of using an APS-C sensor, as opposed to a full-frame sensor, by using a star tracker to get a longer exposure(1 minute) and stacking multiple exposures.
@SiubhanDuinne: Definitely photography, but I’m a child of the 60’s so space was always a thing growing up.
@Spanky: I’m just going with what I read on the internets, and they’re never wrong. //
?BillinGlendaleCA
@M31: Thought you’d enjoy the portrait.
@Benw: Thanks, LV doesn’t need to turn them off during the day, just at night. When I was shooting my MW arch shots earlier this year, you could see the glow from LV in those shots as well.
@lee: I’ll second the comment below that a 10yo camera isn’t probably worth fixing, if you want something lighter, go mirrorless, but that may require new lens.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, I was inspired to shoot the Zodiacal light by another photographer who shot the Spring version at Death Valley this year. I met the guy when we were both shooting the MW at Leo Carrillo, he’s pretty well known with 4 of his shots on APOD I may try and shoot the Spring version with the Sierra as the foreground in the Spring.
@rikyrah: Thanks, I may head out and try for some more this weekend.
@BigHank53: Tend to agree as I noted above.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty: Thanks, we’ll see what I can come up with this weekend.
@mvr: That shot’s been one of my goals for this year.
@Jerzy Russian: It’s the Zodiacal light, since as you note it extends all the way up to the Beehive star cluster you can see at the apex. As I noted in a previous comment, I’ve seen the LV light dome in some of my MW arch shots that I took earlier in the year from location not too far from this site and the LV light dome only extends a few degrees from the horizon.
@stinger: Thanks, I didn’t know much about it until I saw it on APOD and another photographer’s instagram sorry about the Ted Cruz reference.
SkyBluePink
You capture the majesty, Bill-
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SkyBluePink: Thank you.
StringOnAStick
I love it when the colours of individual stars and galaxies are visible! It makes me think of the hopefulness I would get from Carl Sagan, instead of where we are now.
BigJimSlade
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Great shots!
I recall you saying something about some cameras not being good for astrophotography because they lose the colors of the stars. What was that about again (please!)? I don’t recall what to look out for…
BigJimSlade
@lee: If you want to use all your lenses without an adaptor, maybe you’ll like stepping down to Nikon’s D5x00 series, like D5600, D5500. You’ll have a camera that can do just about everything your current camera can do, and it will be about a pound lighter. Though the pentamirror isn’t as nice as the pentaprism.
I have an Olympus (OM-D E-M1, the first version from 2013) that’s getting beat up, so I kinda covet the Nikon Z50 (you would need the adaptor to use your current lenses), but don’t really need to make a change yet (crosses fingers).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@StringOnAStick: Thanks, I’m going to try for another close-up of Andromeda and maybe Triangulum on my next trip out to the Alabama Hills.
@BigJimSlade: I think I was referring to ISO invariance, Sony and Nikons(as is my Samsung) are ISO invariant in some ISO ranges. A good number of astro-photographers will turn up their ISO to create a lighter image, that only amplifies the light reaching the sensor, it doesn’t provide more light and detail. The only way to do that is with a wider lens or a longer exposure via a tracker(which I used on the Orion and galaxy shots). The reason you would shoot at a lower ISO is that you have more tools in post and shooting at the lower end of the invariant range preserves the dynamic range without an increase in noise(bringing it up in post doesn’t increase noise, basically the exposure slider in post is exactly like increasing ISO). Otherwise you just end up baking the amplification of the signal in the RAW file. Canon cameras are ISO variant, so you have to amplify the image in camera.
@BigJimSlade: At some point you have to think about what your priorities are for shooting and if it’s worth hanging on to your current lens. For me, I don’t have much of a choice, I’m going to eventually have to change platforms, Samsung got out of the business 5 years ago, so my next camera will have to be from another manufacture(Sony). Also, since I shoot a lot of low light subject(seen above), I really need to shoot full frame. But if your camera manufacture is still in the business, it’s a harder decision, the glass is expensive.
BigJimSlade
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, my thoughts about getting a new camera are mostly just shopping (reading stuff online, not in-store actual shopping) for fun. Though I have knocked off the eyecup for the EVF (the little bit of plastic it slides onto has broken, so it won’t stay on). And the battery door latch got sheared off – I’m not sure how, but probably when trying to slide it into my shoulder clip. I can open the battery door with a paper clip. They make replacements, but I can’t find one for my old model.
I mostly take pictures while hiking and for travel (which is usually based around hiking anyway), so I love the idea of a full frame camera for image quality, but don’t want the weight (mostly of a lot of the lenses, especially any telephoto zooms), and the expense. Sticking with micro 4/3 might be fine for me, though the APS-C size sensor seems like a decent compromise.
My thing against Sony was adjusting the exposure compensation via the menu instead of on a dial. I suppose you could customize that stuff, but I try to stay away from that. I come across a flower and if I’m in aperture mode, my thumb does the aperture and forefinger does the exposure compensation (highlights get blown out easily, so I have consider that) super quick and easy.
I remembered that you have a Samsung and wondered how long you could/would want to stick with it. It seems like they made some great products, but didn’t want to stick it out in the camera biz (can’t blame them).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@BigJimSlade: If I had the cash, I’d move to Sony today. I really do need the greater light gathering ability of a full-frame camera. That said, I absolutely love the Samsungs(I actually have 4 of them, the NX1, NX500, NX300 and Galaxy NX). Unless you’re shooting low light stuff and don’t mind the crop for really wide angle shots, the APS-C sensor size can be a good choice. The kit lens on the NX1(16-50mm, f/2-f/2.8) is great, but makes the camera a bit heavy for hiking, but I can pop on the 16-50mm f/3.5-f/4.5 power zoom lens from my NX500 and even the NX1 is good for hiking.
BigJimSlade
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ?
And thanks for the reminder about ISO invariance – that was definitely what you had mentioned before!
J R in WV
@Jerzy Russian:
I don’t think removing the Zodiacal Light in these pictures in a goal; rather, Bill_In is trying to show this artifact to people who will never have a chance to see it, because they live in brightly lit places. where city lights overwhelm the artifact.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: You are correct in my purpose for shooting and sharing my shots of the Zodiacal light, but I don’t think that Jerzy was suggesting that I remove it, just that it can cause problems with other astro-photos. Last Spring I attempted to shoot the Zodiacal light closer to home at Leo Carrillo, I did have a bit of success. I mentioned that I’d shot it to fellow photographer Jack Fusco(his IG link is mentioned above) when he posted his Death Valley shot of the Zodiacal light(which is stunning), he was quite excited that I’d managed to capture it in such a light polluted environment.