Kevin Palmer

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  • In the desert within Mojave National Preserve you can find some of the darkest skies in Southern California. It was dark enough to see the zodiacal light, which was visible 2 hours after sunset in the west. The light is made up of dust particles within our solar system illuminated by the sun. Beneath the ghostly light you can see evidence of light pollution from cities to the west.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 1/30/14
    Mojave Zodiacal Light
  • In the northeast corner of Mojave National Preserve lies the largest and densest grove of joshua trees in the world. Most of these strange looking trees are quite short but some of them reach 25 feet high. In this picture, the last light of the day was shining on Kessler Peak a few miles away.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 1/31/14
    Kessler's Last Light
  • I don't think I've ever seen the zodiacal light glow this prominently before. As soon as it became dark enough it jumped out at me right away. The ghostly glow is caused by the sun illuminating dust within our solar system. The glow extends diagonally along the path of the ecliptic, also known as the zodiac. Only under very dark skies like this spot near St Xavier, Montana, are views like this possible.
    Bighorn River Zodiacal Light
  • This was my second time staying the night at the Diamond Butte fire lookout tower. Last month I was locked out and had to sleep on the deck, but I was glad to be able to sleep inside this time since a storm was moving in. There was no running water or electricity, but it had a propane heater, stove, and lights.
    Light in the Dark
  • The zodiacal light glowed in the west after sunset before the moon rose. The view was from my campsite in the McCullough Peaks Badlands and the lights are from the edge of Cody.
    Between the Lights
  • Northern lights dance in the north and the zodiacal light shines in the east. This view was seen from the 6700 foot summit of Cougar Peak in Montana. This sky was untouched by light pollution, allowing the fainter stars and aurora to be visible. This 4 shot panorama covers a large portion of the sky.
    Aurora and Zodiacal Light
  • As an evening storm approached, the sun came out for just a moment over the Badlands National Park. After driving and trying to make it to this overlook, this was the only shot I took before it was gone.
    Moment of Light
  • The first sunlight of the day shines on Double Arch. This is the view directly underneath the 104 foot arch, looking straight up.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/8/2013
    Light on the Double
  • At 2:30AM my alarm went off after catching a few hours of sleep. The moon was about to set, leaving me with 3 hours of darkness to watch the Orionid meteor shower over Devils Tower. My camera captured this bright streak of light shortly before twilight began. But the fact that it appeared in 2 frames and lacks any colors suggests that it was a satellite flare and not a meteor. The diffuse glow rising up diagonally from the horizon is called the zodiacal light. Also known as false dawn, the glow is caused by the sun illuminating the dust which is shed by comets and asteroids in the inner solar system. This cone-shaped glow is projected against the constellations of the zodiac, which is the path that the sun, moon, and planets travel through the sky. I've seen the zodiacal light before, but never this bright and prominent. It can only be viewed from the darkest of locations, far away from light pollution, on very clear moonless nights.
    False Dawn and Iridium Flare
  • During the fall, the zodiacal light, or 'false dawn' shines brightly in the east before sunrise. It is caused by dust within our solar system reflecting sunlight. But it can only be seen in dark skies away from light pollution, which makes Arches National Park ideal.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/8/2013
    False Dawn
  • The constellation Orion hangs above the snowy peaks of the Bighorn Mountains on a cold and windy night. The diffuse glow on the right is called the zodiacal light. This glow can only be seen where the skies are very dark, any light pollution will drown it out. The zodiacal light is caused by the sun reflecting off of grains of dust shed by comets and asteroids in the inner solar system. This dust is concentrated along the zodiac (also known as ecliptic), which is the orbital plane that the sun, moon, and planets travel in our sky. The planet Mars can be seen touching a cloud at the bottom of the glow. Because of the angle of the ecliptic, this phenomena is best seen in the west after dusk in the spring, or in the east before dawn in the fall.
    Glow of the Zodiac
  • Even though I love thunderstorms, I was hoping for a clear sky to photograph the milky way since I was only in the Badlands one night. At 10 pm it didn't seem like it was going to happen so I returned to my campsite in Wall. But just before going to sleep at midnight I looked up and could see stars. So I drove the 20 minutes back to the overlook and saw this. Badlands National Park is one of the best places you can go for dark skies with very little light pollution. Although it wasn't very well defined, green airglow is visible in this shot. Even a very small town can have lights that reflect on the clouds and that is what the orange spots are.
    The Clearing
  • The light was beautiful on this early November day. In between passing snow showers, the sun would come out and light up the valleys while darkening the clouds. This view was seen north of Dillon, Montana. The hills in the distance are the foothills of the Pioneer Mountains.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: November 4, 2013
    Snow Squall
  • A Geminid meteor streaks across the sky above Picnic Key in Everglades National Park, Florida. The star Canopus is reflected on the water with the brightest star Sirius in the middle of the picture and the constellation Orion above. My flashlight lighting up the trees was actually unintentional. When a raccoon approached me I instinctively shined a light in its direction. The raccoons here are very bold because they have no source of freshwater and attempt to steal from campers.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 12/13/2014
    Make a Wish
  • Normally I like to explore a location during the day before taking pictures there at night. But the Southern California traffic robbed me of the time to do that here. Arch Rock was a little bit hard to find in the dark, but it wasn't too bad. I just had to be careful to avoid rattlesnakes. The 30 foot long arch is located near the White Tank campground in Joshua Tree National Park. The eastern part of the park has very dark skies the farther you get from the desert cities. To illuminate the scene, I shined my headlamp on the rock wall opposite the arch. A soft, warm light was reflected backwards. I was grateful the skies cleared up long enough to see the milky way. A few minutes after this clouds started to cover the sky as monsoon thunderstorms moved past the area.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: August 19, 2014
    The Opening
  • The stars of the milky way galaxy are reflected in a calm pond outside of Keosauqua, Iowa. Southeast Iowa has some of the darkest skies in the Midwest, perfect for stargazing. In this self portrait, I stood on the end of a dock and pointed my headlamp towards the stars. Because it was a humid night with fog moving across the water, the beam of light showed up well.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Stargazer
  • The milky way hangs in the sky above Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota. The light pollution along the horizon is from the small town of Luverne.
    Night at Blue Mounds
  • After the sun set over the Absaroka Mountains, Venus became brighter and the zodiacal light began to glow vividly all around it. The diffuse, diagonal glow is caused by the sun illuminating dust particles within the solar system.
    Venus Glow
  • The Double O Arch is one of the longer hikes in Arches National Park. After reaching the viewpoint on the other side, you have to climb through the "lower O" to reach this view. The light on the arch at sunset was amazing, as was the view of the distant desert.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/6/2013
    Double O Arch
  • Waves crashed around my feet as I steadied my tripod and counted down until 8:04PM. That's when the International Space Station (ISS) was going to appear. It was a perfect pass, rising straight up over the horizon, before moving overhead and outshining everything else in the sky. The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 250 miles with a speed of 17,000 mph. At a cost of over $150 billion, the ISS is the single most expensive item ever constructed. The space station has been continuously occupied for 19 years by astronauts, who get to experience 16 sunsets and sunrises a day. The ISS is easily visible from Earth when sunlight reflects off of it's massive solar panels. Finding a spot in Orange County, California, that's dark enough to see the milky way is not easy. But at this time of year it's possible to look southwest over the darkest part of the ocean, while the rest of the sky is filled with light pollution and few stars. It took the ISS about 5 minutes to pass through the sky. I combined the satellite trail from 9 images with a single image of the stars to make it clearer.
    Up From the Ocean
  • Storms can either bring epic sunsets or none at all. It's all about the timing, and where you are in relation to the storm when the sun goes down. This severe MCS rolled through Miles City, Montana around 7pm. The rain slowly came to an end and a glow began to emerge in the west. I wasn't expecting much, but I found a place to wait (Spotted Eagle Lake) just in case something special happened. The sun only popped out for a couple minutes. But that was enough to light up the entire sky with intense orange and pink. A double rainbow appeared for 15 minutes, which was long enough to allow me to shoot a time lapse of it fading away. The wind died down for just a moment and the reflection in the lake made an almost perfect circle. Even though the long drive wouldn't get me home until after midnight, I'm glad I didn't leave early and miss out on this.
    Reflected Rainbow
  • I walked the loop around Seljalandsfoss about 3 times, capturing the different angles as the light changed. I was glad I had my rain jacket with me.
    Seljalandsfoss Evening
  • A Delta Aquarid meteor burns up in the sky above the Pryor Mountains. The glow in the distance is light pollution from Billings.
    Pryor Mountain Meteor
  • The Geminid Meteor Shower was very active in 2018. In this image I stacked a total of 90 meteors which my camera captured while pointed west. In about 5 hours and using 2 cameras, I captured a total of 350 shooting stars. It was a very active meteor shower this year. Near the top of the frame are the twin stars of Gemini, named Castor and Pollux. If you trace back the tails of the meteors this is where they appear to radiate from. The source of these streaks of light are small pieces of debris left behind by an asteroid, which burn up when they enter Earth's atmosphere at 22 miles per second. Thin clouds were making halos around the brighter stars. Overall the weather was perfect with the thicker clouds clearing out just as activity started to pick up after midnight.
    Early Morning Meteors
  • The winter milky way and the zodiacal light were shining brightly in the west after sunset. This view is from Granite Butte on Montana's continental divide.
    Night on the Divide
  • It was a beautiful evening at East Rosebud Lake. The last light on the Beartooth Mountains was reflected in the calm water at the lake's outlet.
    East Rosebud Lake
  • After the sun set over the Absaroka Mountains, Venus became brighter and the zodiacal light began to glow vividly all around it. The diffuse, diagonal glow is caused by the sun illuminating dust particles within the solar system. I shot a couple hundred images for a time lapse and caught a meteor in one of them.
    Zodiacal Meteor
  • Normally I like to explore a location during the day before taking pictures there at night. But the Southern California traffic robbed me of the time to do that here. Arch Rock was a little bit hard to find in the dark, but it wasn't too bad. I just had to be careful to avoid rattlesnakes. The 30 foot long arch is located near the White Tank campground in Joshua Tree National Park. The eastern part of the park has very dark skies the farther you get from the desert cities. To illuminate the scene, I shined my headlamp on the rock wall opposite the arch. A soft, warm light was reflected backwards. I was grateful the skies cleared up long enough to see the milky way. A few minutes after this clouds started to cover the sky as monsoon thunderstorms moved past the area.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: August 19, 2014
    Arch Rock Galaxy
  • The last light on Sylvan Peak is reflected in the outlet of East Rosebud Lake. There are over 60 cabins scattered around this lake, which are part of the private community of Alpine.
    Alpine Sunset
  • For the Geminid meteor shower I snowshoed to the top of the continental divide in Western Montana. From the Granite Butte lookout tower, the views were stunning in every direction. The weather changed by the second alternating between snow showers, gale force winds, freezing fog with zero visibility, clear skies, and brief moments of calm. The tough whitebark pine trees which grow up here are all permanently bent. They point eastward from the prevailing westerly winds which almost never stop. The low temperatures, strong winds, and fog combined to create hard rime ice, which covered every surface (including me and my camera) with a coating up to 2 inches thick. To say that shooting conditions were challenging would be an understatement. My tripod had to be carefully propped up to avoid it blowing over. And with all my batteries dying too soon, I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted to. This was one of the brighter meteors which shone through the fog. The lights on the right are from the city of Helena.
    Through the Freezing Fog
  • All of the Lights
  • Since I was camping near Seljalandsfoss, I went over to get a few shots of the aurora above the falls. I wished I could have turned off the spotlights, since they were a bit too bright. The moon was positioned at the top of the falls.
    Seljalandsfoss Aurora
  • It was July 4th weekend, and most of the campgrounds in the Bighorn Mountains were full. But I didn't mind because I found a dispersed campsite instead with an amazing view of the milky way.
    Good Night
  • The Lost Twin Lakes are found at 10,300 feet  in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. A 6 mile hike from the West Tensleep Lake trailhead, it's the perfect spot for an overnight backpacking trip. The two lakes are in a glacial cirque surrounded by massive granite cliffs up to 2,000 feet high. Treeline in the Bighorns is at about 10,500' feet so most of the trees were very short around the lake.
    Edge of Treeline
  • The setting sun casts a golden glow on the boulders beneath the summit of Black Mountain.
    Golden Boulders
  • Morning sunlight illuminates an unnamed peak in Montana's Beartooth Mountains. This was the view I woke up to while camping in the East Rosebud Valley in Early May. In this mountain range are found dozens of glaciers, and the largest high elevation plateau in the US outside of Alaska. In the upper reaches of these steep slopes avalanche activity was high. A cornice, which is an overhang of snow caused by strong winds, can be seen on the upper right. Overnight the snow solidified as the temperatures cooled. But once the sunlight touched the snow and temperatures warmed, the snow became unstable and gave way. In my 10 mile hike through the wilderness I witnessed about 20 avalanches, most of them small. Sometimes I would hear them before I saw them, with the noise sounding like distant thunder. See below for a picture of one.
    Beartooth Mountain Majesty
  • It was a cold and moist night at Devil's Tower with a few too many clouds. But the milky way was visible for a short time.
    Galactic Tower
  • Early morning crepuscular rays illuminate the Black Hills and the Great Plains beyond. This was the view from the Rankin Ridge lookout tower.
    Wind Cave Sunrise
  • The brightest parts of the milky way are reflected in the calm waters of Spring Lake. It was a bit chilly on this night in mid-May, but the sky was perfectly clear which was great for seeing the milky way.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: May 13, 2013
    Portrait of a Galaxy
  • The 290 foot long landscape arch is the longest in the world. But it is also very fragile and could collapse at any time. In the 1990's the arch lost 3 large chunks one at a time. The trail you see in the picture has been off limits for over 20 years because of the danger from rock falls.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/7/2013
    Landscape Arch
  • This was the best lightning storm I saw all year. A couple thunderstorms passed very close, but the rain stayed out of the way. Sometimes I stack lightning shots, but this is just one exposure. The two lightning crawlers occurred about 15 seconds apart within the 30 second exposure. After chasing some storms to the south and coming back home I think I saw about 10 thunderstorms on this day. There are often deer in this field at night, you can see a couple under the bright streetlight.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 25, 2013
    Night Crawler
  • There aren't very many waterfalls in the world that allow you to walk behind them and watch the sunset. But you can do just that at Seljalandsfoss on the southern coast of Iceland (foss is Icelandic for waterfall). This is only possible during the late summer and early fall, when the sun lines up and transform the curtain of water into liquid gold. A rain jacket or poncho is essential if you want to get behind the waterfall without getting soaked. The force of the water falling 200 feet and hitting the pool below almost seemed to create it's own wind, with the spray going everywhere. It only took a few seconds before my lens was covered with water droplets. To get this shot I huddled over my camera in a corner, waiting for just the right moment when the sun popped out and no one was walking in front of the falls. This is a popular tour bus stop along Iceland's Ring Road, so it can get very crowded at times.
    Liquid Gold
  • The 60 meter tall Seljalandsfoss tumbles over a cliff in the evening sunlight.
    Mist in the Air
  • The stars apparent motion is captured behind the Skyline Arch in Arches National Park. A flashlight was used to illuminate the arch from below.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/6/2013
    Skylines
  • This unnamed creek flowed right past my campsite at 10,000 feet in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. Golden sunlight filled the valley before a thunderstorm approached.
    Bomber Mountain Creek
  • As the sun rose behind me, the nearly full moon set in front of me. This panorama was shot at the Snake River overlook in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Ansel Adams took one of his most popular photos at this same spot.
    Teton Moon B&W
  • It was a warm summer night at the Terry Badlands. I took this self-portait just before going to sleep at 1AM.
    Warm Montana Night
  • All night long a strong westerly wind pushed all the ice across Elk Lake and piled it up on the eastern shore. But the wind calmed down at sunrise which allowed for a reflection of Cloud Peak and Bomber Mountain in the water.
    Elk Lake Sunrise
  • After hearing coyotes howling around me the previous evening, I was glad to see this one in the daylight. He was hunting for mice in this field at the edge of Grasslands National Park. Canadian coyotes are apparently much bigger than those further south. Since there was no one around I was able to back up my car and track along with the coyote and he barely noticed me.
    On The Prowl
  • Eiger is one of the most recognized peaks in Switzerland. The 1,800 meter north face, called Eigerwand, is the biggest north face in the Alps and one of the most challenging climbs.
    Eiger North Face
  • On my way back from Yellowstone, I stopped at Four Dances Recreation Area, to shoot the sunset. Here cliffs rise up to 500 feet above the Yellowstone River. The best view is looking south, away from Billings.
    Four Dances Cliff
  • The milky way sets in the west shortly after sunset. This was taken from the top of a hill prairie in Jim Edgar State Park. It was a great place to watch a meteor shower.
    Hill Prairie Milky Way
  • On May 6, the earth's orbit brought it through debris left behind by Halley's Comet. This caused the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. There aren't very many meteors visible in the northern hemisphere. But I did capture one from the top of Bald Knob in Missouri.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: May 6, 2014
    Bald Knob Meteor
  • A distinctive anvil from a thunderstorm is visible in the west as the skies get darker. Blue Mounds State Park is a short hill on the edge of the Great Plains. It is not unusual to see distant storms such as this, even though it was about 300 miles away near the Black Hills. Many green fireflies are also visible in the grass below.
    Blue Mounds Twilight
  • A beam of sunlight shines in between passing clouds at Holland Lake, Montana. A thunderstorm had just passed through and patches of fog were moving across the mountains.
    Storm and Sunbeam
  • It would have been too dangerous to stay on the summit of Kirkjufell for the sunset, and descend in the dark. So instead I shot the sunset from half way down, past the steepest part with the ropes. The view was almost as good anyway.
    Sunset From Kirkjufell
  • The view of Blacktooth Mountain and Mount Woolsey was stunning from Highland Park. There was still plenty of snow up here on the last day of June, with fresh snowfall the night before.
    Blacktooth and Woolsey Alpenglow
  • The airglow was very bright this night in the skies above Healy Reservoir.
    Spreading Airglow
  • Clouds blocked much of the milky way over Devil's Tower on this chilly April night. This view is from Joyner Ridge Road.
    Joyner Ridge Road
  • A lenticular cloud hangs above Hesse Mountain at 3AM as seen from Powder River Pass. Lenticular clouds are sculpted by the wind and form repeatedly over the same area, usually a mountain peak. In the upper right of this panorama is Jupiter, with the bright star Vega on the top left.
    Hesse Mountain Lenticular
  • A lenticular cloud hangs above Hesse Mountain at 3AM as seen from Powder River Pass. Lenticular clouds are sculpted by the wind and form repeatedly over the same area, usually a mountain peak.
    Space Invader
  • I wouldn't normally set my tripod up in the middle of a steep and slick mountain highway. But at this time of night there was no traffic at all.
    December Night Drive
  • Morning sunlight illuminates the trees above a snowy road in Sand Ridge State Forest.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: February 2, 2015
    Snowy Gold
  • This scenic view is often mistaken for the Grand Canyon. It is actually Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. It is the same Colorado River that carved this 2000 feet deep canyon that flows into Canyonlands National Park. As I stood on the edge of this cliff, I wondered how much of a push it would take to dislodge this boulder. It was perched right on the edge of a sheer 500+ foot drop.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/6/2013
    The Edge of Day
  • After clouds moved in and hid the views from the summit of Store Malene (Ukkusissat), I started heading down. Halfway down I came across this ice pattern when the sun came back out.
    Mountainside Ice
  • The Geminid Meteor Shower was very active in 2018. This view is looking south from Diamond Butte, Montana.
    Night of the Falling Stars
  • Passing traffic shows up as red and white streaks in this long exposure <br />
 taken on Michigan Ave.
    Michigan Avenue
  • Kirkjufell is said to be the most photographed and one of the most beautiful mountains in Iceland. But not many people get to see the view from the top. The trail going up was the steepest and most exposed hike I've ever done. A system of knotted ropes must be used to make it up some of the cliffs. Once at the summit, the evening sun broke through, and low clouds floated past. The view was breathtaking.
    Kirkjufell Glow
  • The spine of Kirkjufell is lit up in the golden evening sunlight.
    Kirkjufell Spine
  • These horses were grazing by my campsite near a 4WD road in the Big Horn Mountains. I wanted to find somewhere to camp with a view of the snowcapped 13,005 feet high Black Tooth Mountain in the distance. Out of the herd of 7 horses, these two were obviously a couple. I waited for them to walk into the late evening sunlight before I shot their portrait.
    Inseperable
  • It was half past midnight on the last day of August. A solar wind stream blowing at 700 km a second reached Earth a little sooner than predicted. The northern lights had been dancing on and off for the past few hours. But then I noticed a strange pattern, which was dim enough that I wasn’t sure it was really there. A long exposure revealed greater detail and color. The picket fence pattern is related to a rare, recently classified type of aurora called STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.) STEVE most often appears as a bright, pinkish ribbon of light found away from the main band of aurora. STEVE may or may not be accompanied by this green picket fence, but on this night the brighter streak of light was absent. It was my first time seeing it this far south in Wyoming. Lake DeSmet provided a beautiful blurred reflection when the wind let up. This night was the first of 4 in a row that I’d capture the aurora. The weeks surrounding the spring and fall equinoxes tend to be the most favorable for geomagnetic storm conditions. But around here the weather tends to be a lot clearer in the early fall, which is why I have more aurora sightings in September than in March.
    Emerald Waters
  • On this January night the moon was 3 days past full which means it didn't rise until 3 hours after sunset. When the moon crested the horizon it was dim and orange, for the same reason that the sun is orange when it first rises. Because earth's atmosphere is thicker at the horizon, it absorbs blue wavelengths of light and lets warmer colors shine through. This view is from the mountains west of Sheridan, whose lights can be seen glowing on the left. This entire mountainside along Red Grade Road burned in a wildfire nearly 10 years ago. But even dead trees can look photogenic in the right light.
    Moment of Moonrise
  • It was nearly 11pm in southern Saskatchewan. I had just watched a bright auroral substorm send colorful arcs high into the northern sky, but it was starting to fade. Then I turned around, looking south, and this is what I saw. A bright pinkish strip of light stretched from east to west, while the crescent moon hung low on the horizon. It's one of the most unusual things I've ever seen in the night sky. This strange type of aurora is called Steve. The name started as a joke, but it stuck.  Steve was first captured last year by a group of aurora photographers in Alberta. After ESA flew a satellite through it earlier this year, it was discovered that it's comprised of very hot (10,800°F) ionized gases moving along at 4 miles per second. This ribbon of light is 16 miles wide and thousands of miles long. I watched as Steve started overhead nearly paralleling the US-Canada border, before slowly moving south. It turned into a green "picket fence" pattern before fading away. It was awesome to see such a mysterious phenomena which is still being studied by scientists.
    An Aurora Named Steve
  • It was nearly 11pm in southern Saskatchewan. I had just watched a bright auroral substorm send colorful arcs high into the northern sky, but it was starting to fade. Then I turned around, looking south, and this is what I saw. A bright pinkish strip of light stretched from east to west, while the crescent moon hung low on the horizon. It's one of the most unusual things I've ever seen in the night sky. This strange type of aurora is called Steve. The name started as a joke, but it stuck.  Steve was first captured last year by a group of aurora photographers in Alberta. After ESA flew a satellite through it earlier this year, it was discovered that it's comprised of very hot (10,800°F) ionized gases moving along at 4 miles per second. This ribbon of light is 16 miles wide and thousands of miles long. I watched as Steve started overhead nearly paralleling the US-Canada border, before slowly moving south. It turned into a green "picket fence" pattern before fading away. It was awesome to see such a mysterious phenomena which is still being studied by scientists.
    Steve and the Moon
  • At the end of October I had the the chance to spend a week in Alaska. I timed this trip with the arrival of a solar wind stream so the northern lights would be extra active. The sky only stayed clear for a couple hours on this night, but that was enough to see this bright ‘aurora rainbow.’ Only by shooting a panorama with my widest lens could I capture all of it. Most of the lakes and wetlands around Fairbanks had these bubbles in them. They are made of methane gas suspended in the ice. Just 30-40 cm underground is the permafrost, which normally stays frozen year round. But as the Arctic warms and the permafrost thaws, the decaying plant matter (also known as peat) releases methane into the atmosphere. During the summer this gas is invisible. But for a short time after the water freezes and before it gets covered with snow, these frozen bubbles are visible. Many area lakes have such a high concentration of methane that it’s actually possible to pop these bubbles and light them on fire.
    Rainbow of Aurora
  • With both clear skies and a geomagnetic storm in the forecast, I headed north of the border to Saskatchewan. Grasslands National Park is a long ways from anywhere. During the day the landscape seems stark and desolate, especially after a very dry summer. But the real beauty of this park comes after sunset. It is one of the darkest places on the continent. With no sources of light pollution at all, the stars appear the same as they did to the Plains Indians hundreds of years ago. The aurora was already bright and colorful earlier in the evening. But at midnight after the moon set, the northern lights went insane. I've never seen such rapid motion before. If you could imagine a campfire with the flames rising upward and flickering on and off, that's what it looked like. Except instead of orange, it was green, and instead of it being confined to a fire ring, it filled the entire sky. I don't think any camera could fully capture it, it just has to be experienced.
    Two Tipis
  • Faster and faster the wind gusted, until it was blowing 700km a second - solar wind that is. The solar wind carries an embedded magnetic field from the sun. When it's oriented northward, it gets repelled by Earth's magnetic field. But when the solar wind is oriented southward, that's when things get interesting. The magnetic fields of the Earth and the Sun connect to each other and charged particles are funneled into the upper atmosphere. Collisions with air molecules emit the light that makes up the aurora. After monitoring solar conditions, I went out as soon as the data looked favorable. While I've captured the northern lights over Steamboat Point before, I've been waiting for a chance to try this viewpoint further away. The moon setting in the west was lighting up the cliffs with a warm glow. As the moonlight faded, the aurora brightened, until it broke out into these red and green pillars shortly before midnight.
    Aurora With a Touch of Moonlight
  • In late September a high speed solar wind stream reached earth, causing a G1 geomagnetic storm. The aurora borealis became visible in the northern part of the United States. Around here the weather was completely clear and there was no moon making conditions perfect for viewing the northern lights. I went to the grasslands outside of Lodge Grass, Montana, where there was very little light pollution. The aurora was at it's best shortly before midnight. While the pillars danced from right to left, nearby cows mooed and coyotes howled. Quite a few meteors and satellites lit up the sky as well. The geomagnetic storm is ongoing and the aurora may be visible again tonight.
    Lodge Grass Aurora
  • It's quite common to see clouds at night illuminated from below by light pollution. But it's strange seeing clouds turn green, illuminated from above. This was the solar wind stream I traveled to Alaska to see, and it arrived about 24 hours after I did at 2AM. The aurora was mesmerizing to watch as it became very bright, and  twisted and pulsed and flickered. It's not often that I point my camera straight up.
    Straight Up Awesome
  • With both clear skies and a geomagnetic storm in the forecast, I headed north of the border to Saskatchewan. Grasslands National Park is a long ways from anywhere. During the day the landscape seems stark and desolate, especially after a very dry summer. But the real beauty of this park comes after sunset. It is one of the darkest places on the continent. With no sources of light pollution at all, the stars appear the same as they did to the Plains Indians hundreds of years ago. The aurora was already bright and colorful earlier in the evening. But at midnight after the moon set, the northern lights went insane. I've never seen such rapid motion before. If you could imagine a campfire with the flames rising upward and flickering on and off, that's what it looked like. Except instead of orange, it was green, and instead of it being confined to a fire ring, it filled the entire sky. I don't think any camera could fully capture it, it just has to be experienced.
    Tipi Aurora
  • Fog moves around a field as the milky way galaxy rises higher in the sky. This was taken near the Iowa and Missouri border in some of the darkest skies in the entire midwest. The only evidence of light pollution was in the yellow clouds lit up by a small town 15 miles away. The green dots on the bottom right are from a firefly fleeing the scene.
    Humid Summer Night
  • At first the aurora was confined low on the northern horizon. But then it brightened and filled the sky. It's not often I can shoot a time lapse on a highway. But traffic was very light.
    Night On Richardson Highway
  • I'm still in shock that my camera captured this. Most of the small storm had moved off to the east behind me and I thought the show was over. This was literally going to be my last shot before packing it up, and if it happened 2 seconds later, I would have missed it. The bright light behind the cloud is the first quarter moon. All the other white specks are raindrops, frozen in mid-air by the brilliant flash. The raw power dwarfed everything around and it took awhile for my eyes (and ears) to recover. I'm still not sure what was struck, but one of the forks looks like it connects with the short tower on the hill. I've tried before and failed to capture lightning from this vantage point overlooking Sheridan. But when I heard a thunderstorm rolling out of the mountains shortly before midnight, this is where I went. The covered deck at the rest area offered a little protection and helped keep the rain off of my lens.
    A Flash of Brilliance
  • Every tidal cycle brought something different. An endless stream of icebergs floated down the fjord, stranding themselves in this small bay when the tide turned.  Earlier that morning there were so many pieces of ice that I couldn’t even walk across this beach. But by nightfall most were carried away and only a few remained. It was my last night in Nuuk and the forecast called for 80% clouds. I just had to wait for that 20% gap. Geomagnetic activity wasn’t particularly high either, but this far north it doesn’t take much. Greenland is located under the auroral oval, where shows like this may happen any time the sky is clear and dark enough. When fringes of purple or pink line the swirls of aurora, it’s often associated with bright, rapid movement. A still image doesn't even begin to show all that's happening in the sky. Rays of light pulse inward from every direction, converging overhead at the zenith. It’s mesmerizing to watch and hard to look away from, though part of me wished I had a second camera with me to capture it all.
    Energetic Swirls
  • The aurora dances between the lingering twilight and the city lights of Nuuk. This view is from the top of Lille Malene (or Quassussuaq).
    The Lights of Nuuk
  • I nearly gave up on seeing the aurora this night but I'm glad I didn't. The thick clouds parted for a brief time to the west as the northern lights brightened. One iceberg was stranded on the rocks while hundreds of others floated past in a blur.
    Lights of a Rising Tide
  • Northern lights dance in the north and the zodiacal light shines in the east. This view was seen from the 6700 foot summit of Cougar Peak in Montana. This sky was untouched by light pollution, allowing the fainter stars and aurora to be visible. This 4 shot panorama covers a large portion of the sky.
    Aurora Zodiacal Light 2:1
  • Early June is wildflower season in the Bighorns and entire mountainsides were blooming with color. I took advantage of the clear weather by shooting the milky way from Red Grade Road outside of Sheridan. It was dark for a couple hours before the galaxy started to fade and the sky became bluer. At 1AM the 65% moon peeked over the distant ridge and cast a warm glow across the arrowleaf balsamroot flowers shaking in the breeze. I’ve always found a late night moonrise to be one of the toughest scenes to capture accurately. While my eyes could easily see details of the moon, the camera only shows it as a burst of light because the moon is significantly brighter than it’s surroundings.
    By The Light of the Moon
  • South of Billings, Montana, rising up out of the Bighorn Basin, is the Pryor Mountains. These mountains are home to a herd of mustangs. Some of these wild horses hang out in the lower elevations near Bighorn Canyon, but the majority are found near the mountaintop at 8,000 feet where the grass is greener. Getting here requires traveling a long, rough, and steep dirt road. On my prior Pryor visit, I didn't get all the shots I wanted and was only able to capture the horses in the middle of the day. But this time I made sure to be in the right place at sunset. The views were amazing into the valley below, and the light was magical. The horses numbered at least 60, but I lost count as they moved around. In the last minutes before the sun set, many of them trotted past me. Shooting into the sun created a dreamy look, but I had to be careful not to blind myself.
    Walking Into the Light
  • After heading down an unmarked road I unexpectedly came across this old cabin with 3 walls standing and a collapsed roof. I don't know the history behind it, but it sure is photogenic. After going on a hike I returned to capture it in the golden light of sunset.
    Dimming of the Light
  • One of the most notable landmarks on the Oregon Trail, Chimney Rock towers hundreds of feet above the surrounding plains in the Nebraska panhandle. The pillar was at least 10% taller 150 years ago, but it has since been weathered down by wind, erosion, and lightning. I was glad to be able to capture some nice light at sunset on the west side of the rock formation, even though it didn't last long. The anvil in the distance is from a thunderstorm which produced a tornado nearby a couple hours earlier.
    Last Light On Chimney
  • The first light of sunrise paints the top of the badlands with a brilliant orange glow. Located in western South Dakota on the edge of the Great Plains, this harsh landscape is home to bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and other wildlife. By definition badlands are semiarid regions with sparse vegetation that experience high rates of erosion. Even though there are other places in the western US and throughout the world known as badlands, the term originated here in Badlands National Park. This is a special place, but unfortunately the person who decided to use it as a landfill didn't think so. When I peered into this steep ravine I spotted a couch that someone had rolled to the bottom.
    Badlands First Light
  • I stood on top of a peak in the Big Hole Mountains of Idaho after snowshoeing up. At first I was disappointed by all the clouds hiding the Tetons from view and making the light flat (the forecast called for sunny and clear). But then the clouds began to break up in the west and golden sunbeams (also known as crepuscular rays) danced across the ridges.
    Light Breaking Forth
  • The aurora borealis turns the sky purple and green over Frenchtown, Montana. Passing clouds were hiding part of the northern lights.
    Colorful Night
  • Darkness could not come soon enough. Reports of the northern lights were coming in from across the eastern US. Standing on a cliff nearly 1,000 feet above Meadowlark Lake, this was a spot I’d been wanting to spend the night for a long time. The highest peaks of the Bighorn Mountains stood to the north, including Cloud Peak dead center. Aurora chasing mostly involves a whole lot of waiting. Waiting for the right space weather forecast, clear skies, moon phase, and for the sun to go down. Even when conditions seem perfect the aurora can come and go at the drop of a hat. When darkness arrived, so did the clouds, along with a brief rain shower. When the clouds faded, so did the northern lights. But finally just before 1AM the glow returned. A substorm sent red and purple pillars halfway to the North Star, reflected in the water far below. It did not last long before the moon rose and drowned out the lights. Even though the display wasn’t as good as it could have been, moments like this are always worth staying up for.
    Midnight at Meadowlark
  • I wasn't really expecting the northern lights to be this active. It was a beautiful night for stargazing, and I was only planning to shoot the milky way, but I never got to that. A slight breeze disturbed the surface of the lake most of the night. But at 3AM it became perfectly calm and the surface of Lake DeSmet looked like glass. A long exposure from a camera always picks up more colors in the aurora than the human eye can see. Oftentimes only the color green is visible. But the purple pillar on the right was very noticeable and it hardly moved at all.
    Purple Pillar
  • For the 2nd night in a row, there was an active display of the northern lights in Abisko, Sweden. Starting off as a dull glow in the north after sunset, it quickly exploded with bright green spiral swirls filling the entire sky. Here above the Arctic Circle the aurora is ever present, encircling the Earth's poles in a zone called the auroral oval. Even during solar minimum when solar activity is quiet, the northern lights are visible on almost any clear night. And Abisko sees more clear nights than surrounding areas because the mountains to the west create a rain shadow effect. Visible beyond the forest of short birch trees, is Torneträsk, Sweden's 6th largest, and 2nd deepest lake.
    Green Cyclone
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north.
    Aurora Gap
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north.
    Volcanic Green
  • The northern lights shine through evening twilight over the Atlantic Ocean near Ólafsvík, Iceland.
    Overpowering Green
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