A Spiral Arm of the Milky Way Rising Above Ward Mountain (Big Bend National Park)
I have many thoughts on this image. One was timing so that my trip took place over a new moon, ensuring I'd have as dark a sky as possible in Big Bend National Park. The next was to better appreciate the ephemeris apps. What I mean is the difference between reading and the app showing the center of the Milky Way being below the horizon especially in the latter month during a year. Then I saw and overheard someone pointing out the Milky Way being above in the skies...something was not adding up, needless to say! Then I realized the difference with the center of the Milky Way and the continuation in the skies with the long spiral arms. The next is to have an article saved or ready with camera settings to capture and later process any night image of the skies above. I found this to assist me, but there are many (photo.stackexchange.com/questions/43028/how-to-have-color...).
To the image itself, this is in the parking area at the Chisos Mountain Lodge looking to the southwest. The mountain outline is of Ward Mountain. Some of the trees in the lower portion are those in nearby hills which I found helpful for focusing (a note on that: one can use Live View or the equivalent to also focus). The EXIF data will show I kept the shutter open for 30 seconds and used a Nikon in camera setting to minimize long exposure noise which added an additional 30 seconds.
Lastly, those skies were truly beautiful!
A Spiral Arm of the Milky Way Rising Above Ward Mountain (Big Bend National Park)
I have many thoughts on this image. One was timing so that my trip took place over a new moon, ensuring I'd have as dark a sky as possible in Big Bend National Park. The next was to better appreciate the ephemeris apps. What I mean is the difference between reading and the app showing the center of the Milky Way being below the horizon especially in the latter month during a year. Then I saw and overheard someone pointing out the Milky Way being above in the skies...something was not adding up, needless to say! Then I realized the difference with the center of the Milky Way and the continuation in the skies with the long spiral arms. The next is to have an article saved or ready with camera settings to capture and later process any night image of the skies above. I found this to assist me, but there are many (photo.stackexchange.com/questions/43028/how-to-have-color...).
To the image itself, this is in the parking area at the Chisos Mountain Lodge looking to the southwest. The mountain outline is of Ward Mountain. Some of the trees in the lower portion are those in nearby hills which I found helpful for focusing (a note on that: one can use Live View or the equivalent to also focus). The EXIF data will show I kept the shutter open for 30 seconds and used a Nikon in camera setting to minimize long exposure noise which added an additional 30 seconds.
Lastly, those skies were truly beautiful!