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
Mid October was a special time for astrophotographers, we had some intense aurora activity followed by a few days with a comet gracing our evening skies. Due to fortunate(some planned and some by chance) scheduling, I managed to capture these events.
I use a website called Astropheric to plan my astrophotography, it has the amount of cloud cover, how clear the sky is(transparency and seeing), temperature and due point, as well as the KP index which is how likely an aurora is to occur. Right now, the KP index is usually around 2 to 4, so you won’t see an aurora especially here in the lower latitudes. During my dinner break from my duties at the Home of the Orange Apron on October 9th, I noticed that the KP index for the next day was extremely high, 8 heading down to about 7 for the next night. Since Thursday and Friday are my weekend, I headed to Red Rock Canyon State Park to see the aurora. I’ve never shot the aurora before, nor have I even seen it. I had no idea what settings to use on the camera, what lens to use, or as I found out, where to point the camera.
Arriving at Red Rock, there was a bit of cloud cover as I had expected from the weather forecast. I set up my camera on my tripod pointed to the north pole and took some test shots at various different exposure settings. It was clear to the north, but a bit cloudy as you looked more to the east. Looking at the test shots, it appeared that the glow seemed to be centered more to the east where there were lingering clouds. I changed my lens to my fisheye lens to get a wider field of view. As the clouds cleared a bit more I began to see red and magenta streaks at the horizon a bit east of polar north. I set the camera to take a time lapse of the aurora and saw red, magenta and yellow streaks of light. An amazing sight.
I packed things up and headed about 60 miles north to Fossil Falls. This area is the site of recent(in geological time) volcanic activity and is dominated by a large cinder cone known as “The Red Hill”. By this time, I’d figured out that since the aurora is a magnetic storm, it would be centered a bit to the east of celestial north. I shot for about an hour at Fossil Falls before heading home.
While we don’t get a lot of advanced notice when an aurora will occur, we do know months ahead of time about the arrival of a comet. What we don’t know about comets is how bright they will be, or even if they will survive the trip around the Sun. Comet 2023/A3 (Tsuchinshan/ATLAS) had been approaching the Sun in late September, most visible in the pre-dawn hours in the Southern Hemisphere and looked to be a promising as an evening comet in the Northern Hemisphere if it survived the trip around the Sun. Its closest approach to earth was on October 12th and I had some fellow photographers who went out and shot it that evening, I could not since I was working that day. I had scheduled a week off the following Monday though Friday to shoot this comet. The biggest problem with Comet A3 was its timing. Unlike Comet NEOWISE in 2020 which passed close to the earth near the new moon, Comet A3 was appearing close to and during the full moon which would make it more difficult to see.
I returned to Red Rock the evening of the 14th to shoot the comet, the weather was nice and about a half hour after sunset, I was able to see the comet on my camera and a few minutes later I could see it visually. Unlike the aurora, I knew where the comet would be in the sky using the Stellarium program on my PC and phone. The comet was perfectly possitioned just west of the Red Cliff and was quit bright with an ion tail opposing the very long debris tail.
Tuesday night I headed to Lockwood Valley where I’d taken some of my best shots of Comet NEOWISE four years earlier. I wasn’t all that happy with my foreground that night and the road to where I though might yield the best composition was closed. Weather didn’t look favorable Wednesday night, so I rested and headed up to Kearsarge in the Owens Valley to shoot Thursday evening. I wanted to get a shot of the comet with the Sierra as a foreground. The comet had become a bit dimmer but was in the sky quite a bit longer. I had to contend with the full moon that night and what sent me home earlier than I’d liked was strong winds.
Friday night I decided to stay closer to home since I had to be at work the next afternoon. Fellow photographer Henri who’d joined me for the Little Lake Valley shoot in August had planned on going with me to shoot at Red Rock on Monday, but could make it; joined me at Leo Carrillo for my one last shot at Comet A3. My initial composition idea was to to shoot close to the lifeguard station, but we decided to start off on the beach. I shot some test shots early on since the comet was as visible as it had been earlier in the week and we had some light cloud cover. We shot from the beach and then headed back to the lifeguard station to shoot there, but the clouds had moved in and that was it for the night.
The aurora at Red Rock with the Red Cliffs. This shot was part of a sequence I took for a time lapse. I think this probably the best way to shoot the aurora, get a good framing and just shoot frame after frame, then shoot a foreground.
A wide shot of the aurora at Fossil Falls with a bonus meteor.
While things had died down a bit, we still got a nice glow behind the Red Hill.
A return to Red Rock and the comet in the gap of the Red Cliffs with traffic on CA-14 in the foreground.
The comet in Lockwood Valley.
The site of the Kearsarge Station, with the comet over the eastern Sierra.
This was sort of a test shot, but I ended up liking it quite a lot with the glow of the setting Sun, Venus and the comet to the upper right. I would have liked the comet a bit better centered, but I’d ended up get wet.
The lifeguard station perched on the cliff with the comet in the sky over it.
Baud
These are amazing. I don’t know if I’ve seen anything like them before.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
I’m still without power here, so any of my replies will be brief.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It was the first time that I’ve seen the aurora, I may have have seen it in Alaska but there drinking involved.
TKH
Wow, just wow!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@TKH: Thanks.
Jay
Lovely photo’s.
Thank you.
Ramalama
So good, so so good. Thank you for posting these.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay:
@Ramalama: Thank’s, glad you like them.
p.a.
Wow!
Elizabelle
Wonderful photos, Bill. Thank you.
Stay safe!
BenInNM
Beautiful! I managed to get a picture of the comet on my iPhone here in Albuquerque. I couldn’t see the comet with my naked eye, but I just pointed the phone in the right direction and upped the exposure time and could see a faint streak of the comet. Not as striking as your photos but I was still pretty pleased.
AnonPhenom
Beautiful.
(Hope your luck holds out this year and you get shots of T Coronae Borealis)
J.
Wow! Fantastic photos, Bill! I hope you’ll be okay and that you get your power back soon.
Winter Wren
Great shots! The Aurora in October was my first also – here in the Boston area, you could just make out some faint red with the naked eye and photos revealed reds and greens more deeply. We looked for the comet a few nights but couldn’t find it with the naked eye – it was pretty hazy the nights we tried.
Matt McIrvin
I think those red-purple columns are my favorite kind of aurora. I managed to get an OK picture of one early in the event, before the brighter green curtains that were easier to photograph.
zhena gogolia
Beautiful! Check out Bill’s Patreon.
lashonharangue
Amazing photos! Thanks
Wanderer
Exceptional. Thanks Bill.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
These are gorgeous Bill. Thank you for this. I hope you and yours are ok and get power back soon
Albatrossity
Love it, especially the comet at Kearsarge Station!
Ohio Mom
Despite all the upheaval in the world, things feel a little more normal when BillinGlendaleCA’s nightscapes grace the blog. It’s been a long time.
cope
These photos are wonderful, thank you. I appreciate your detailed narrative as well. As someone who has dabbled in astrophotography off and on for years, I can empathize with all the factors that need to be juggled in order to catch something as ephemeral as comets and aurorae.
Thanks again.
Wag
Great photos, as always. I had an opportunity to see the aurora on the plains east to Denver, and it was amazing. The comet was a treat, as well, and I was able to photograph it from a park in the middle of Denver. Impressive despite the light pollution. All in all an excellent astro-autumn!
Wag
@Ohio Mom: 100%
RoseWeiss
Gorgeous photos! I had no hopes of seeing the comet because my Oregon skies were densely clouded, so I’m thrilled to see it through your pictures.
munira
Beautiful – fantastic shots. Thanks
Miss Bianca
As always, unbelievably great shots. One might even say, “out of this world.” Hoping you stay safe, Billin!
WaterGirl
@RoseWeiss: I just saw your comment and manually approved it. Now future comments from you will show up right away for everyone. Welcome!
WaterGirl
Really late getting to this thread, but I have to say how gorgeous these are, even if no one sees the comment.
Timill
@WaterGirl: Ain’t nobody here no more (except us chickens) …
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
The power came back on here about 2 hours ago, so most things are back to normal.
Sister Golden Bear
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Good to hear. Be safe.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@p.a.: Thanks much.
@Elizabelle: Things are much better here, smoke has cleared quite a bit and the power is back on.
@BenInNM: That’s great, I shot the comet all days that week except for Wednesday, I probably should have tried a shot from here then.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@AnonPhenom: Thanks.
@J.: Thanks much, got the power back about 4 hours ago.
@Winter Wren: I was at too low a lattitude to see the greens, but half the sky had a magenta hue.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: The red, magenta, and occasional yellow was about all we got this far south, maybe next time I’ll head to Mono Lake.
@zhena gogolia: It was a special week and was happy to share it my patrons real time. Thank you.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@lashonharangue:
@Wanderer:
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Happy you like them, the power has returned and I’m on my PC now.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Albatrossity: I didn’t think the Kearsarge shot would work since it was so windy. After that shot, I sat in the car hoping the wind would die down, but it just shook the car. I decided to head home and got gas at the tribal gas station. I noticed a lot of gas spillage, when I filled my tank, I noticed why, so much wind. If it hadn’t been so windy, I probably would have shot at Manzanar as well.
@Ohio Mom: I had one ready to go, but FYWP ate it when I hit submit.
@cope: One of the things I’ve been doing over the last year or so is using some of the deep space astro techniques and programs for my landscape astro stuff(Trevor Jones at Astrobackyard did a vid this week on doing this). I think it helps a lot and the tools(free) have been evolving rapidly.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Wag: And it was all in one week! A truly special week it was.
@RoseWeiss: I got really lucky as far as the weather was concerned, except for Kearsarge and the coast after the clouds moved in.
@munira: Glad you like them.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Miss Bianca: Customers at the Orange often call me a space case. The wind has died down and the power is back.
@WaterGirl: Thanks, I saw the comment, but will you see the reply?
@Timill: (Makes chicken noises).
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Sister Golden Bear: Thanks.
Tehanu
I had no idea that comet was so big and impressive. Thanks!
Manyakitty
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: wow, stunning shots!
Also, too, glad to hear you and yours are safe.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Tehanu: This comet had a really long tail and would have been much more impressive if it had appeared during a new Moon like NEOWISE did in 2020.
@Manyakitty: It was a pretty good week for landscape astrophotography and pretty exhausting, Thanks for the kind thoughts.