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
Spring and Summer means it is time for Milky Way Core photography. Unfortunately, I was stuck at home most of the Spring due to needing new tires for the Prius that I could not afford. Late Spring I was able to get the tires replaced and headed back on the road. If you may recall from my last posts on this here blog, I acquired an astro modified camera(the filter that all cameras have to restrict light at the higher wavelengths of the red spectrum being removed and replaced with a filter that lets in more of that nice red light) and replaced my tracker that I could no longer charge. So, I ended up spending most of the Spring working out kinks in my new equipment(the mount that replaced the tracker and the computer that controlled the mount). I also added a dual narrowband filter that clips into my camera behind the lens to help boost the H-alpha emissions from nebula around the Milky Way core(it also has many other uses for deep space photography that you’ll see in later posts).
I first headed out to Red Rock Canyon State Park a bit north of Mojave California. This is one of my favorite places to test things out. It is not the darkest site, but it is about a 2 hour drive from Glendale. The first outing was just to test out my mobile setup away from home which mostly worked well(the battery, the computer, and the mount). My next trip up there, I tested using the computer to control shooting a Milky Way landscape. While this worked, it didn’t work well, so I reverted to just tracking with the mount and using a ball head to frame the shot.
Another photographer suggested we go back to Little Lakes Valley to shoot the Milky Way, while he backed out at the last minute, a different photographer and I made the trip. While planning for this trip, I decided that I wanted to shoot tracked shots by the friendly shores of Long Lake and trying to lug the SA-GTI up there would not work, so I ended up purchasing a smaller tracker the Star Adventurer Mini for just shooting Milky Way(or any wide field) shots. This also allows me to set up the SA-GTI for some deep space shots and shot some wide field shots at the same time.
If you like my shots and want to see more, please consider joining my Patreon at BillinGlendaleCA | creating Photos | Patreon.
This was shot without the tracker, just with a tripod and ball head. I wanted to test out shooting a Milky Way shot with just a filter to cut the infrared and UV light and then combine that with narrowband data. While the photo turned out nice, I really couldn’t capture enough useful narrowband data to make it work as well as I would have liked.
A week later and back to Red Rock, this time to shoot longer exposures and take full advantage of the SA-GTI. I found a star near the core and let the computer track that star for longer exposures. Then changed to the narrowband filter and continued tracking. This was a lot of work and I decided that this approach wasn’t going to work.
Lockwood Valley is about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while it is a shorter distance than Red Rock it takes about as much time to get to. This time I used a ball head mounted on a z-bracket on the SA-GTI so I could better frame the shot and then just set the computer to just track.
I’ve shot the Amboy Lions before, including last year with the A7iv, but I wanted to try it with the astromod A7r with additional shots with the narrowband filter. In this case, I moved the rig behind the lion to take the tracked shots of the sky and then moved the rig out of the way to take the foreground shot of the lion just with camera on a tripod and light painted the scene.
I’d ordered the Star Adventurer Mini(SAM) from a local telescope/camera store and it arrived just before heading out to Kearsarge. I also had the SA-GTI along with me for some deep sky shots. I walked with the SAM about 1/4 mile west to get the sky shot. The SAM is easy to polar align using a trick I learned from Nightscape Images and I was able to get the shots off quickly.
After a few twist and turns, my fellow photographer Henri and I headed out on the trail to Long Lake in Little Lakes Valley. We took our time getting up there since the hike is all at over 10,000 feet in elevation, arriving at Long Lake about 7pm. As the sky began to darken, the Milky Way arch became discernible in the sky, the winds died down and the arch was reflected in the water of Long Lake. This is the second set of shots I took at Long Lake; the first set, I thought the exposure was too long and the star trailing was too excessive. This exposure was composed of 16 15 second shots stacked for niose reduction, one of the 15 second shots was used for the lake reflection and a 6 minute shot was used for the foreground.
This shot is the same as the one above, but using the star tracker. The sky was shot with 8 2 minute exposures instead.
On the hike to Long Lake, you pass 4 other lakes(Mack, Marsh, Heart, and Box). On the way back, we stopped at Heart Lake and I shot another set. The Milky Way was vertical in the sky at this point. Similar to my non-tracked shot at Long Lake I shot 16 15 second exposure and this time a 4 minute foreground exposure.
Baud
It’s neat to see the star trails in the lake.
Beautiful as always.
SiubhanDuinne
I always look forward to seeing your glorious Milky Way/astronomy shots. The last three, with stars reflected in the water, are just stunning.
p.a.
👏👏👏👏👏
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: That’s how you can tell it is a real reflection.
A fellow photographer in a group chat we have on FB, linked to a shot that at first he thought was mine. I took a look at it and the reflection was sharp and detailed. The photographer had taken his sky shot and turned it upside down and blended it with the foreground.
@SiubhanDuinne: I just can’t get out as much as I used to, I work full time so I just have my “weekends”. I am able to now shoot some deep space stuff at home, so I’ve been doing that some nights after work. I’ll share some of the deep space stuff in my next post.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@p.a.: Thanks much.
oldster
Those are mind-blowing. All of that magnificence going on in the sky, but not quite visible to the naked eye.
Thanks for doing the work to capture it.
J.
Wow! So beautiful! Thank you for sharing!
HinTN
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Welcome back!!!
The photographs are stunning, as always. Are the bright magenta spots in the first Little Lakes shot star-birthing regions?
Rusty
The water really adds to the pictures, thank you for sharing (and the explanations too).
Torrey
@HinTN:
I love the fact that we (non-astronomers) can now talk casually about such things as star-birthing regions, or, in another formulation, star nurseries. That wasn’t a thing when I was a young ‘un, at least not for those who weren’t astronomy nerds.
And the pictures are, as always, wonderful. I really appreciate the supporting information as well. Great way to start the day.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ll be on the lookout for those tricks.
cope
Beautiful shots, thank you.
kindness
You should contact Kevin Drum. He lives in OC and goes out regularly to shoot astronomy shots.
Manyakitty
Just glorious. Thanks for sharing!
arrieve
Amazing as always. The reflection shots are especially magical.
KatKapCC
These are amazing!!
Dmbeaster
@HinTN: They are usually star nurseries, but what they are literally is red emission nebula. Hot energetic stars still swaddled by dust from which they condensed emit vigorous radiation that stimulates the hydrogen that makes up most of the mass of the dust clouds. The hydrogen then releases the energy primarily in photons in the visual red spectrum.
The new stars slowly drive off dust from creation and the red emission nebula dissipates.
The photos show the very prominent red emission nebula in Sagittarius (which also has the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy). These are the Lagoon and Trifid, which on the small scale of these photos blend together.
Yutsano
Absolutely singular good sir!
Dmbeaster
@HinTN: Sagittarius can be spotted in the picture by looking for the asterism that looks like a teapot in the lower left of the Long Lake shot, which is just outside the Milky Way itself.
Dmbeaster
Love how your new camera technology really brings out the dust lanes of the Milky Way.
Lugging that gear up to Long Lake, while no big deal by Sierran standards, must have been a chore. I love backpacking up there to the north side of Chickenfoot Lake, only a mile past your shot location and 400 feet of gain. The daytime reflection shots of Bear Creek Spire and surrounding peaks in the lake are great, as are sunrise alpenglow shots. Plus it’s enough off standard trails that you enjoy real privacy even though it’s an area with significant day use. It you want to be guided up there, I love going.
Day use is way up in the Sierras with social media educating people about hiking opportunities. In the last few years, I have been blown away by the number of people in the wilderness.
The Red Pen
🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔🎔
Thanks for sharing, these are gorgeous.
BigJimSlade
Hey, that’s a neat effect with the stars looking sharp, but with their trails in the water!
BigJimSlade
@Dmbeaster: Thanks for all the info!
Dmbeaster
@BigJimSlade: His tracker freezes the stars in place for long exposures (the camera moves in unity with the Earth’s rotation), but cannot do so at the same time for the reflection images. The streaked images in the lake record how the camera moved during the exposure.
It is a fun effect, though I bet that he would love to have a perfect mirror of the sky shot. Note Bill’s discussion how his first set of images had “excessive” star streaking in the reflection.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@oldster: Thanks, the camera does allow a perspective that our eyes can’t see since it can gather light over a longer period of time.
@J.: Happy you liked them.
@HinTN: Thanks, the camera is picking emissions of excited hydrogen gas which can create stars.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Rusty: I agree, I’m looking at several other lakes in the Sierra for next year.
@Torrey:Thanks, this post actually goes up at the end of my day.
@Baud: Reflections are hard to capture, you can’t have any wind or the water becomes too choppy. We had great conditions that night except it was starting to get cold.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@cope: Thanks.
@kindness: Thanks, I’ve not followed what Kevin is doing lately
@Manyakitty: Glad you like them.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@arrieve: The reflection shots require a good deal of planning and luck(weather).
@KatKapCC: Thanks, I’ll have some close-ups in the next post.
@Dmbeaster: I was hoping to get a closer shot of Lagoon and Trifid this year, but that may have to wait until next year. I should be able to get a shot of the Eagle Nebula, it is still high enough in the sky.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: Thanks.
@Dmbeaster: Yup.
@Dmbeaster: I’ve been thinking of doing a day hike up to Gem Lakes(including a stop at Chickenfoot). I’ve also wanted to do a day hike up to Mono Pass and Summit Lake up there. Long and Heart lakes are really good for Milky Way stuff though.
The SA-Mini is a pretty light tracker(the old iOptron wedge is was using was the heavier part), so it wasn’t too bad bringing on the hike.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@The Red Pen: Happy you like’em.
@BigJimSlade: I shot pretty low to the ground and the water was really still. Couldn’t have asked for a better night.
@Dmbeaster: The stars in the reflection will always have some distortion. The trailing in the water is caused by the angle of the reflection, there wouldn’t be much due to the earth’s rotation given that the reflection shots were 15 seconds. If the stars(and the core) are crisp and clear in the reflection, the photographer just plopped the sky into the lake for a “reflection”.