Place of Happiness

Before the invention of Google Maps, driving with only a road atlas, wasn't always easy, but also had its advantages... In the early 1990s, I accidentally discovered this beautiful lake in the Californian Sierra Nevada, after taking a wrong turn on my way from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite NP.

 

I never forgot about the beautiful sight and in 2020, I made an effort to rediscover this little gem, which I vividly remembered after seeing it for only a few moments, almost exactly 30 years ago.

 

It has been one of my favorite spots ever since, but somehow I never made it there near new Moon. This October, I finally got an opportunity to change this and I was able to capture my favorite part of the sky rising over my little place of happiness.

 

The sky in this bortle 2 area did not disappoint either and I was able to capture the incredible amount of interstellar dust and Hydrogen emission nebulae present in the winter Milky Way.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS R, astro-modified

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 @ f/2

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

Panorama of 4 panels, each a stack of 10x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 105s ISO6400

Foreground:

Stack of 4x 30s @ ISO800, f/8, during twilight

Reflection:

Single exposure of 12s @ ISO6400, f/1.4

Done