Night Photos

I've also been fooling around trying to take good star and Milky Way photos. I'm still learning, but it has helped to have acquired a decent tripod and a remote shutter trigger.

I started by trying to capture low clouds illuminated by the street lights of Clifton Forge three miles to the east.

This has been a good summer for viewing planets. Back in July it was possible to see all five naked-eye planets: Mercury very low in the west at sunset, Venus very bright and low in the west, Jupiter high in the south, Saturn in the southeast, and Mars just rising in the east right after sunset. Now only four are visible (Mercury is lost in the sun's glare), and Mars is rising earlier every night. In the photo above, Mars glows orange-red Mars in the southeast between Sagittarius and Capricorn.

I must have bumped the focus as I took this picture of the Big Dipper, but it does make the stars standout!

Scorpio is lying on its side above the southern horizon. The evening fog/haze usually obscures everything by 11 PM.

I finally achieved modest success photographing the Milky Way in Sagittarius. Mars is the large orange object to the left, and Scorpio is in the right third of the photo. Saturn is just above the "teapot's" lid (Sagittarius).

I still need some more practice, but I'm getting better at capturing the Milky Way.