Rio Grande w MW 2020
I arrived at the highway bridge over the Rio Grande a little after midnight and waited around until I was satisfied with the Milky Way being nice and vertical over the river, about another hour.
It was not a pleasant location to hang out in, despite the view. The shoulder on the bridge enabled me to be on it at all, but the highway traffic was going right behind me. Annoyingly, even after midnight there was a surprising number of big trucks coming down from Los Alamos. Some made an effort to change to the left lane when they saw my headlamp, but some didn't and it was a hair-raising experience having them barrel past me at high speeds just a few feet away.
On my way back off the bridge I became aware of all the big dents in the guard rail, so I was happy to get out of there....
Despite all that, it is a beautiful scene and the waning gibbous moon provided ample illumination of the landscape. The trade-off is a washed-out Milky Way though.
Last year I took this shot on a moonless night, but didn't like the outcome because the landscape was pitch black and therefore became very noisy in post processing when trying to brighten it.
Because of the traffic, I swore then never to come back in the pitch black of night. Now I vowed never to come back at all.
Made from 16 light frames with 16 dark frames by Starry Landscape Stacker 1.8.0. Algorithm: Mean Min Hor Noise
Rio Grande w MW 2020
I arrived at the highway bridge over the Rio Grande a little after midnight and waited around until I was satisfied with the Milky Way being nice and vertical over the river, about another hour.
It was not a pleasant location to hang out in, despite the view. The shoulder on the bridge enabled me to be on it at all, but the highway traffic was going right behind me. Annoyingly, even after midnight there was a surprising number of big trucks coming down from Los Alamos. Some made an effort to change to the left lane when they saw my headlamp, but some didn't and it was a hair-raising experience having them barrel past me at high speeds just a few feet away.
On my way back off the bridge I became aware of all the big dents in the guard rail, so I was happy to get out of there....
Despite all that, it is a beautiful scene and the waning gibbous moon provided ample illumination of the landscape. The trade-off is a washed-out Milky Way though.
Last year I took this shot on a moonless night, but didn't like the outcome because the landscape was pitch black and therefore became very noisy in post processing when trying to brighten it.
Because of the traffic, I swore then never to come back in the pitch black of night. Now I vowed never to come back at all.
Made from 16 light frames with 16 dark frames by Starry Landscape Stacker 1.8.0. Algorithm: Mean Min Hor Noise