Kevin Palmer

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  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    Under Jupiter
  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    Lightning and Moonbeams
  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    Moon Behind the Anvil
  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    The Hills Are Electric
  • I find it hard to sleep while backpacking when this is above my head. This part of Missouri has very dark skies, the only problem is the thick forests leave few places to see the stars clearly. But the top of Bald Knob in Buford Mountain Conservation Area was the perfect place to spend the night and photograph the stars.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: May 6, 2014
    Sleep Eludes Me
  • Lake Sugema was alive on this night with insects chirping, bats flying, and bullfrogs croaking. The green lines are from a firefly that buzzed in front of my camera. Southeast Iowa has some of the darkest skies in the midwest and the milky way was breathtaking as the stars were reflected almost perfectly on the calm water.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Bugs, Bats, and Bullfrogs
  • The northern milky way shines bright above the Kelso Sand Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve. At the top left is the Andromeda Galaxy. Clouds were moving across the sky quickly on this windy night.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 1/30/14
    Kelso Night
  • 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
  • This large, ivy-covered barn is located outside of Keosauqua, Iowa. This area has some of the darkest skies in the midwest and the milky way was breathtaking.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Ivy Barn Night
  • The stars Aldebaran, Rigel, Orion, and Procyon along with Jupiter formed a pentagon in the sky. In the middle is the star Betelgeuse with Orion's belt and nebula to the right. Thin clouds were causing halos to form around the brightest points of light. This view was seen looking up from my campsite in the Mojave National Preserve, which has some of the darkest skies in Southern California.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 1/30/14
    Winter Pentagon
  • After shooting the aurora over Nuuk Fjord for hours, it moved more to the southern sky. So I setup my camera over this small pond which was in the process of freezing over. During the brightest bursts of aurora the ground turned green. Jupiter is seen in the center of the photo and reflected on the ice.
    Jovian Ice
  • Early on November 19th the moon passed through Earth's shadow, known as the umbra. Less than 1% of the lunar surface remained lit by sunlight, just missing out on totality. Scattered clouds hid the moon much of the night.  But waiting until 2AM paid off as a brief window to the heavens opened up. One of the best parts of a lunar eclipse is watching the sky darken and more stars come out. At no other time can you see so many stars beside a full moon. This was shot at the nearby ghost town of Monarch. A century ago it was a booming coal mining town, but today there is little evidence of its existence. An old water tower on top of a hill overlooks the mostly empty river valley.
    Monarch Moon
  • 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
  • Every clear night between December and April, Orion has a close encounter with Devils Tower just before it sets. It was a shot I've had in mind for awhile, but I waited until March to pay a visit so I could capture it at a more reasonable time and temperature. Beneath the 3 belt stars is found Orion's Sword. It also goes by the name Messier 42, NGC1976, or simply the Orion Nebula. As the brightest nebula in northern hemisphere skies, it is easily seen with the naked eye away from light pollution. Larger in angular size than the moon, it looks spectacular in even a small telescope. If you zoom in to the belt star of Alnitak (pierced by a satellite trail), the Flame Nebula is on the left, with the Horsehead located below. Between finding the right overlook, aligning the star tracking mount, shooting dozens of long exposures, and hours of editing, “deepscape” photos like this are always more complex than any other type I create. But I love showing a commonly photographed landmark in an uncommon way. When thin clouds started to roll in I almost stopped shooting, but I ended up liking the halo effect.
    Orion Close Encounter
  • The time was after 11PM, yet still the light of sunset lingered in the northwestern sky. It gets dark quite late here in Montana in the middle of summer. This peak has been on my radar to climb for quite awhile. Like a spine, the long and narrow Bridger Range is situated in the middle of the state. The 9,665’ Sacagawea Peak, named after the famed guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is the apex of the mountain range. Views stretched far and wide in every direction and were some of the best of any peak I’ve stood on. After sundown the lights of Bozeman and smaller towns came on. Then Comet NEOWISE slowly appeared through the deep blue twilight sky. Just a few minutes makes a big difference in visibility because while the coma is bright, the tail of the comet is faint even though it’s huge. After this more clouds moved in along with a couple flashes of lightning. It was time to leave, but I was thankful for the short window of opportunity I had. Descending the steep trail by headlamp was no small task. I made note of the tricky parts on my way up and was extra careful in the dark, trying not to butt heads with any mountain goats.
    Sacagawea Comet
  • I had a few hours to shoot the stars over the Tetons before clouds would move in.
    Night at Willow Flats
  • After taking the chairlift to the Aurora Sky Station in Swedish Lapland the aurora was unfortunately very weak. But it was a crystal clear night and the stars were still beautiful.
    Andromeda and Faint Aurora
  • Even though the moon was bright, the aurora had no problem shining through. And the moonlight made for better pictures as it lit up the landscape.
    Above the Shaking Trees
  • At 1:30AM the milky way was rising and formed a giant arch in the sky. Airglow turned parts of the sky green. I needed a 7-shot panorama (with plenty of overlap) to capture it all.
    Arching Milky Way
  • It’s a view I came across in early spring: a lone tree on top of a hill overlooking ranches, ponds, a canal, and the Bighorn Mountains. The milky way was the perfect backdrop when I returned to shoot it on a warm night in July. The green stripes in the sky are from a phenomenon called airglow. During the day sunlight ionizes oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere, and their recombination at night emits a small amount of light. This chemical reaction occurs about 100km up at the same height as the aurora, which is caused by a different process. Ripples in the airglow come from gravity waves, which may originate from the jet stream or a particularly powerful thunderstorm complex. I often find airglow in my pictures anytime I’m shooting under a dark sky. But this night was the strongest I've ever seen it. The wave pattern was very apparent, although the color was undetectable to my eyes.
    Beckton Milky Way
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  • 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
  • At the end of March Venus was at it’s greatest elongation. That is when the 2nd planet from the Sun is at it’s highest and brightest in Earth’s sky. Outshining every star and planet, it’s even bright enough to see during the day under the right conditions. Because Venus is an inferior planet orbiting inside Earth’s orbit, it never strays more than 47° from the Sun. When Venus is east of the Sun it is the Evening Star. But when it is west of the Sun it becomes the Morning Star. Counterintuitively Venus appears brightest during it’s crescent phase because that’s when it’s closer to Earth. The Moon was also a crescent on this evening. It’s always challenging to capture the Moon with the stars as they appear to the eye since it's so much brighter. But the passing clouds acted as a filter and helped to balance the exposure. Above the glowing cloud is the Pleiades, the most recognizable star cluster in the sky. A week later Venus would pass through the Pleiades, an occurrence that happens every 8 years.
    Filtered Moonlight
  • Early in the morning the northern horizon glowed green. This was caused by a geomagnetic storm from a recurring coronal hole on the sun. A coronal hole is an opening in the outer atmosphere of the sun that allows the high-speed solar wind to escape, which triggers the aurora when it impacts Earth’s magnetic field. Since the sun rotates on it’s axis every 27 days, this can be predicted in advance. I saw the aurora from this coronal hole in September, but last month it was too cloudy. I was determined to see it again this weekend even if it meant staying up all night dodging clouds (aurora hunting is an addiction). The infrared satellite showed a gap in the clouds moving in at 2AM, so I made some coffee and found a dark spot on the Wyoming/Montana state line to watch and wait. It wasn’t the best display I've seen, but I’ll take what I can get during solar minimum, and the meteor was a nice bonus.
    Parkman Pond Aurora - 32
  • 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
  • Because this morning's lunar eclipse occurred with the moon close to the horizon instead of high overhead, it was particularly well suited for photography. I just needed something to frame the moon over, and I couldn't think of a better subject than Devils Tower. I did the math and figured out I would need to be just under 2 miles east of the tower to shoot it with the lens I had. The surrounding area has lots of hills, trees, and private land, but luckily there was a road in the right spot, which provided this view. What was supposed to be only flurries the evening before turned into 4 inches of fresh snow. The clouds didn't clear out until minutes before the eclipse began. As the moon became redder, the sky became bluer and the stars slowly faded away. Snow doesn't stay very long on the tower since the sun heats up the rock quickly and winds blow it off. But everything came together perfectly this morning to create a one of a kind view.
    Totality at the Tower
  • 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
  • I combined some of the last aurora images I took before dawn into this startrail. I stacked the pictures in Starstax using comet mode and in reverse order so the stars seem to be rotating clockwise instead of counterclockwise. This allowed the bright purple pillar to show through more easily.
    Rotational Velocity
  • The Rosette Nebula is a target I've been wanting to photograph for awhile. But my last few tries have been unsuccessful because of the wind. The bright red nebula is found in the constellation Monoceros. On the lower left is the Christmas Tree cluster surrounded by faint nebulosity. The blue nebula doesn't even have a name other than NGC 2247.
    A Nebula Named Rosette
  • 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
  • With snow up to my knees, camera screen and viewfinder frosted over, and batteries dying prematurely, astrophotography in winter is not without its challenges. Even a simple task like adjusting my tripod becomes tricky with bulky gloves and numb fingers. But it's worth it to be able to see this mountain lake and forest in a way that few people do. The silence and solitude on this perfectly clear night was incredible. It was the night of winter solstice, the longest of the year with over 15 hours between sunset and sunrise. When the crescent moon made it above the treetops at 3AM, the powdery snow began to glimmer and sparkle much like the stars above. It was as if there was another galaxy of stars hidden in the snow, waiting to be revealed in the moonlight. Trailing below the moon is the planet Jupiter.
    A Glimmer of Hope
  • I found this warming hut that's part of the nordic ski trails a few months ago while exploring the area. I thought it would be a great place to hike to on the night of winter solstice. It's above 8,000 feet elevation and the thermometer there was reading 0°F. But the wood burning stove warmed up the place quickly.
    Out of the Cold
  • This image shows the stars apparent motion caused by the rotation of the earth. I setup my camera point at my tent while I camped in Anza Borrego.
    Anza Borrego Night
  • The stars twinkle behind a lone tree at Massacre Hill in the Fetterman Monument. A bloody battle was fought here between the plains Indians and the US Army in 1866.
    Massacre Hill
  • The deep blue colors of twilight overtake the sky as dawn approaches at Beartooth Lake.
    Beartooth Twilight
  • September is always a really good month to shoot wildflowers around here. After finding this thick clump of black-eyed-susans, I placed my tripod underneath them with a backdrop of the milky way. I didn't really like the color temperature of the light from my headlamp. So I actually just found a yellow image on my phone, made the screen bright, and light painted with that. This is a focus stack of 2 images.
    Milky Way Bouquet
  • A Geminid meteor burns up just below Polaris in Big Cypress National Preserve. I have never seen the North Star so low before since I have never been this far south.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 12/14/2014
    Meteor Under Polaris
  • My camera captured these 19 meteors in only 93 minutes starting around midnight on December 14th. I was a bit disappointed that my camera battery died after this because I wondered how many more I missed. Despite the moonlight many meteors had no problem shining through. I couldn't think of a better place to watch the Geminid meteor shower than this remote island in Everglades National Park. I paddled out the day before and spent the night on Picnic Key. A lack of sleep, sickness, and battling the tide the next morning made it an exhausting trip. But it was worth it to see the best meteor shower of the year.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 12/14/2014
    Out of the Blue
  • 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
  • The two brightest objects in the night sky appear side by side in front of the milky way in a rare alignment. Venus is the blue object, and the yellow object is the moon. Even though the moon was only an 8% crescent, it was brighter than Venus. The band of yellow along the horizon is from the last colors of twilight before it was completely dark. This incredible sky is framed over the Colorado River in Utah. The 2000 foot deep canyon is part of Canyonlands National Park. But this view was actually shot from the edge of a cliff at Dead Horse Point State Park.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 11/5/2013
    Canyon Alignment
  • 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
  • The aurora dances above an iceberg stranded on the beach at low tide.
    Ice and Tidepool
  • This morning brought a G3 geomagnetic storm, which was strong enough to make the aurora visible through the moonlight in Sheridan, Wyoming.
    Aurora Outside Sheridan
  • 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
  • During the most intense part of the geomagnetic storm, I looked straight up and this is what I saw. It's known as a corona, and it looks like the aurora is radiating outward from a single point in the sky. This was the first time I've seen a corona and it didn't last long.
    Aurora Corona
  • 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
  • Stars rise above Black Mountain on a cold winter night.
    Black Night
  • In early August the aurora made an appearance and I was able to see it for the first time this year. The sun follows an 11 year cycle where the solar activity that causes the aurora (sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections) increases and decreases. As we head toward solar minimum predicted in 2019, the aurora will become increasingly rare in the mid-latitudes, but will continue to occur around the arctic. Last year I was able to witness the aurora 10 times, mostly from Illinois, but this year has been a lot different. This picture was taken from the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains above Dayton, Wyoming. It was a spot I scouted out in advance and knew it had a good view north. While I was taking pictures, a sharp gust of wind came up over the ridge. I held on to my tripod, but the wind blew my camping chair down the side of the mountain.
    Dayton Aurora
  • If you have never seen the aurora, you should definitely make it a goal. This was a once in a lifetime show for me as I have never seen a better geomagnetic storm. I was only in Wisconsin but it felt like I was in Alaska. The aurora was pulsating, moving rapidly and it covered much of the sky. Most of my pictures were taken with a 10mm lens which tells you just how much of the sky was filled with color. This was taken from the top of Blue Mound, which is the highest point in southern Wisconsin.
    Rising Intensity
  • If you have never seen the aurora, you should definitely make it a goal. This was a once in a lifetime show for me as I have never seen a better geomagnetic storm. I was only in Wisconsin but it felt like I was in Alaska. The aurora was pulsating, moving rapidly and it covered much of the sky. Most of my pictures were taken with a 10mm lens which tells you just how much of the sky was filled with color. This was taken from the top of Blue Mound, which is the highest point in southern Wisconsin.
    Once in a Lifetime
  • On a dark night in Sand Ridge State Forest I found these Black Eyed Susans blooming in a small prairie. The air was so calm that the flowers didn't even move.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 9/16/2014
    Prairie Night
  • 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 moon wasn't even full on this night. But the clear arctic air along with the powdery snow made the moonlight extra bright.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: February 11, 2014
    White Shadows
  • The average temperature in space is -454° F. It wasn't quite that cold at Spring Lake, but it nearly felt like it. I've been looking forward to the milky way's return to the morning sky for months. I would have preferred warmer temperatures for my first shot of the year. But the best thing about arctic air is it often brings perfectly clear and transparent skies. Venus was just 2 weeks past it's peak in brightness, casting a nice reflection on the ice.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: February 26, 2014
    Ice and Space
  • 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 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
  • Fireflies buzz around under the milky way. This picture was taken in Weinberg King State Park in Illinois. This location has the darkest skies in the state.
    Lights of a Summer Night
  • The aurora borealis turns the sky purple and green over Frenchtown, Montana. Passing clouds were hiding part of the northern lights.
    Colorful Night
  • 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.
    Primarily Purple
  • The aurora was so bright that it made the mountains, snow, ice, and everything else turn green.
    When the Ground Turned Green
  • 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 couldn’t let NEOWISE leave without trying to capture it over Devils Tower. But this wasn’t the shot I had in mind. The forecast called for mostly clear skies after earlier severe weather exited. But sometimes what actually happens is so much better than what I can imagine. This supercell popped up to the west around 10PM and the anvil quickly blocked out the comet. But then just as the storm was showing its best mothership structure during a close encounter with the tower, a hole in the clouds opened up. It was perfectly placed to reveal the comet once again for just a few minutes. It’s a good thing that most of the lightning was intracloud. If bolts of lightning were jumping out they would have been too bright to expose for the comet. Every single flash highlighted or backlit a different part of the storm. While the lightning continued for most of the night, I was glad the large hail stayed away. I didn’t want to test the hailproofness of my tent.
    A Hole in the Clouds
  • Later in the night the wind picked up quite a bit. But after sunset Lake Solitude was fairly calm and made for a nice reflection.
    Serene Solitude
  • After an auroral substorm, a corona formed at the zenith. A corona is a very fast moving type of aurora, where the rays appear to converge. But by the time I finished a time lapse and pointed my camera straight up, most of it was gone.
    At the Zenith
  • While camping at Castle Gardens, I captured the stars for 2 hours to put together into this startrail image. A campfire cast a warm glow on the bluffs and hoodoos above.
    Castle Aglow
  • I spent the night at one of my favorite places: Diamond Butte fire lookout in southeast Montana. Once my wheels left the pavement, I drove for 100 miles without seeing another human. Open range cattle, pronghorn antelope, deer, and elk seemed to outnumber people 1,000 to 1. Here in the middle of nowhere are some of the darkest skies you'll ever see. 360° of sparkling stars over the rolling hills and grasslands makes it hard to get any sleep. After the moon set at 1AM I waited for the milky way to get into position. At 3:30 the core of the galaxy containing nebulae, dust clouds, and star clusters moved above the tower. Also visible is the bright planet Jupiter, in the middle of the Dark Horse Nebula.
    Looking Out
  • One of my goals this summer was to capture a lightning storm from the Bighorn Mountains. But it’s not easy since by the time a storm pops up it may be too late to get to the right spot. And once I’m in the mountains, lack of cell data makes it hard to know what’s happening with the weather. But storms weren’t even expected on this night. I was camping near an overlook called Freeze Out Point. At 11PM I went up to the overlook one last time and was surprised to see flashes to the east. The cell was some 75 miles away in Montana, and at that distance lightning often appears red as it’s seen through the thicker lower atmosphere. Distant lightning strikes that are silent and without thunder are often called heat lightning. But heat lightning isn’t really a specific type, thunder simply can’t be heard from more than 10 miles away. There was just enough time to shoot a time lapse of this moonlit lightning storm before low clouds and fog came in and obscured the view.
    75 Mile Strike
  • Over Labor Day weekend the Earth's magnetic field was battered by a solar wind stream from a coronal hole on the sun, which reached speeds of up to 800km a second. This led to the aurora dipping down to lower latitudes and I was able to catch it 4 nights in a row. I'm always in search of new north-facing viewpoints for picture opportunities. This night I spent at the top of the Judith Mountains in central Montana. Montana always has a better shot at seeing the aurora and being at a high elevation helped even more. The views reached far and wide out over the plains with more mountain ranges than I could count. As it got dark flashes of lightning were visible 250 miles away in Saskatchewan which I didn't even know was possible. The aurora danced all night long, preceded by a fiery sunset and followed by a stormy sunrise. It couldn't have been a more colorful stay on this mountaintop.
    Pillars Rising Above
  • The aurora display only lasted a couple hours on this night before a snow storm moved in. But it was very bright and active. I shot most of it from a frozen pond a few minutes outside of Fairbanks. Methane bubbles were suspended in the ice.
    Bright Green Stripes
  • On my last night in Alaska I went to Chena Lake for a couple hours. I'm sure the aurora would have kept getting better, but I had to leave early since I'd be waking up at 4AM to catch my flight.
    Chena Birches Aurora
  • In December the constellation Orion rises in the east immediately after sunset. While camping in Joshua Tree National Park, I picked a campsite that faced a boulder formation in that direction. When clouds moved in, I wasn’t sure I would get any pictures. But then a small gap appeared, leaving halos around the brighter stars. The red supergiant star Betelgeuse is visible in the center. It is one of the largest stars in the Milky Way, 1400 times the size of the sun. It's also a variable star, which means the brightness changes regularly. But in recent days it has been attracting attention because it’s currently dimmer than ever recorded before. Betelgeuse is at the end of its stellar life cycle and when it goes supernova its brightness in Earth's sky will rival that of the full moon. Since the star is 640 light years away, it may have already exploded centuries ago. But the likelihood of seeing a supernova anytime soon is still very small and they remain unpredictable.
    Boulders of Orion
  • There’s perhaps no better way to practice social distancing and clear your head than to spend some time under the stars. The idea for this picture came months ago: to capture Orion setting over this jumble of giant boulders called the Fallen City. After doing the math and simulating the view, I determined exactly where to put my tripod and when to make it happen. But one problem is this is a very windy spot in the Bighorn Mountains. My attempt in February was foiled by the wind and I could not get any clear images. But March brought another chance with calmer weather. A fresh snowfall topped with rime ice made the forest glow in the starlight.<br />
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The Orion Nebula is the brightest in Earth’s sky. It can be seen with the naked eye from dark skies and looks spectacular in a telescope. Also visible next to Orion’s Belt are the Flame Nebula and Horsehead Nebula. To get this picture first I took a series of images of the sky with my camera on a star-tracking mount. Once the nebula set, I turned the tracking off and took a longer exposure of the foreground.
    Orion and Fallen City
  • At first it had the appearance of puffy clouds on the southeast horizon. Then as it rose higher the Milky Way revealed more detail. The clouds were made not of water vapor, but of stars too numerous and densely packed to resolve individually. The bright core of the galaxy is split in two by a dark lane of cosmic dust known as the Great Rift. The Milky Way was soon followed by the rise of Jupiter, and then Saturn. Meanwhile shooting stars periodically flashed across the sky during the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower. The Lyrids are the oldest known meteor shower, first observed 2700 years ago. Of the 15 meteors I captured, this one was the brightest. Devil’s Kitchen is a small basin containing badlands-type terrain, but it may as well have been another planet. It’s a barren wasteland located on the west side of the Bighorn Mountains filled with fascinating geologic formations of all different colors. When I first found it last summer I knew I had to return to shoot it at night.
    Night at Devil's Kitchen
  • This was the view from my campsite in the Crazy Mountains. Blue hour is the time of day when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon and the sky takes on a predominantly blue color. This was amplified by the light of the moon, which was about to emerge over Crazy Peak on the right. At the end of the valley a lenticular cloud formed and stayed in the same place for hours. A long exposure helped to smooth out the ripples in the water giving it a glassy look. This lake, at an elevation of 8,200 feet, is fittingly called Blue Lake.
    Blue Lake
  • Early in the morning the northern horizon glowed green. This was caused by a geomagnetic storm from a recurring coronal hole on the sun. A coronal hole is an opening in the outer atmosphere of the sun that allows the high-speed solar wind to escape, which triggers the aurora when it impacts Earth’s magnetic field. Since the sun rotates on it’s axis every 27 days, this can be predicted in advance. I saw the aurora from this coronal hole in September, but last month it was too cloudy. I was determined to see it again this weekend even if it meant staying up all night dodging clouds (aurora hunting is an addiction). The infrared satellite showed a gap in the clouds moving in at 2AM, so I made some coffee and found a dark spot on the Wyoming/Montana state line to watch and wait. It wasn’t the best display I've seen, but I’ll take what I can get during solar minimum, and the meteor was a nice bonus.
    Parkman Pond Aurora - 54
  • I can't say I miss the very humid days and nights of Illinois. But I do miss the fireflies. Their flashing lights are nowhere to be found in drier areas out west. Fireflies (also called lightning bugs) thrive in hot and humid weather. They are typically most active in the late spring and early summer. They flash their lights in the evening before quieting down when the temperature drops. I recently spent a few hours at Spring Lake, which is a place I've gone stargazing many times. This firefly entered the frame near Mars which stood out prominently as the red planet. Mars gets slightly brighter every night until it reaches opposition at the end of July, at which point it will be the brightest it's been in 15 years. Saturn is also visible, just right of center in a star cloud of the milky way. I was a little disappointed when a breeze came up and ruined the reflection, but it did provide relief from the biting mosquitoes.
    Galactic Firefly
  • 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
  • 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
  • March has been a very active month for geomagnetic activity. But unfortunately it has also been a very cloudy month where I live. On Monday night I was finally able to catch a glimpse of the aurora while dodging clouds near Decker, Montana. The northern lights were rather weak but I was still glad to have seen them.
    Decker Aurora
  • Moonlight illuminates the badlands and grassland in South Dakota.
    Diverging Trail
  • In mid-August I photographed the annual Perseid meteor shower. But this was no ordinary year, as there were twice as many meteors as normal. Beartooth Lake, at almost 9,000 feet in the Beartooth Mountains was the perfect place to watch from. I was worried about the weather, with thick clouds at sunset and a wildfire only 7 miles away. But it ended up being a beautiful night. The show got started at 1AM when the moon set, leaving the sky completely dark. While listening to every little sound around me (this is grizzly bear country) I counted 250 meteors in 4 hours. This was one of 93 that my camera captured over  Beartooth Butte. The radiant (Perseus) was to the upper right outside of the frame. As dawn approached, fog swirled around the glassy surface of the lake. Hand warmers strapped to my lens prevented the glass from fogging up. I don't know how cold it was, but I do know my water bottle froze and I was snowed on at the pass earlier in the evening.
    Green to Red
  • In mid-August I photographed the annual Perseid meteor shower. But this was no ordinary year, as there were twice as many meteors as normal. Beartooth Lake, at almost 9,000 feet in the Beartooth Mountains was the perfect place to watch from. I was worried about the weather, with thick clouds at sunset and a wildfire only 7 miles away. But it ended up being a beautiful night. The show got started at 1AM when the moon set, leaving the sky completely dark. While listening to every little sound around me (this is grizzly bear country) I counted 250 meteors in 4 hours. With my camera pointed northwest at Beartooth Butte, I captured 93 of them. I combined them all into this composite image. The radiant (Perseus) was to the upper right outside of the frame. As dawn approached, fog swirled around the glassy surface of the lake. Hand warmers strapped to my lens prevented the glass from fogging up. I don't know how cold it was, but I do know my water bottle froze and I was snowed on at the pass earlier in the evening.
    Night of the Falling Stars
  • The milky way shines brightly above Black Tooth Mountain while airglow gives a green tint to the sky.
    Blacktooth Milky Way
  • Quick moving clouds pass above an old abandoned bridge in Tazewell County, Illinois, on a winter night.
    Abandoned Bridge
  • In My 2 hour time lapse I captured 1 bright Taurid meteor. There was another similar one right after this. But it somehow occurred in the 2 second gap in between pictures.
    Freefall
  • The fog was mesmerizing as it swirled around Spring Lake on this night. That is until it got too thick to see the stars.
    When Clouds Fall
  • The sky was fairly dark in rural Stark County and the milky way was shining brightly above this railroad crossing.
    Crossing in the Sky
  • After the northern lights began to fade and the clouds cleared, a strange wave pattern became visible in the sky. This is airglow, a chemical reaction that occurs at the same altitude as the aurora, but it's a separate process. This night was the only time I've ever seen it with the naked eye. I'm pretty sure it was caused by gravity waves from powerful severe thunderstorms that impacted Illinois earlier in the evening.
    Gravity Waves
  • Brockway Aurora
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: 12/13/2014
    Make a Wish
  • The line in the sky is the International Space Station, 262 miles above the earth. The ISS orbits the earth every 93 minutes at speeds of over 17,000 mph. When it passes overhead, the ISS becomes brighter than any star and can take as long as 6 minutes to cross the sky. There are many apps and websites (such as http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/) that tell you when to look for it. <br />
In the foreground is a mysterious abandoned structure that resembles a lighthouse. I don't know how old it is or what it was built for. I first found it a few months ago at Banner Marsh near the Illinois River.<br />
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Date Taken: August 3, 2014
    Space Navigation
  • This part of the Missouri Ozarks has very dark skies that allow for a stunning view of the milky way. The thick forests can make it hard to find a clear view. But the top of Bald Knob was the perfect place to spend the night and see the stars above the small town of Belleview in the valley below.<br />
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Date Taken: May 6, 2014
    Belleview Milky Way
  • The milky way is reflected over Kreis Pond in Montana as a campfire burns on the left. In October, the brightest part of the galaxy is only visible in the early evening before it sets for the night.
    Kreis Pond Milky Way
  • The aurora dances over Nuuk Fjord as seen from Lille Malene (Quassussuaq).
    From Heaven Down
  • 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
  • While the world may be chaotic and unpredictable, there's something reassuring about being out under the stars. When I look up I'm gazing at the same constellations that humans have marveled at for thousands of years. Their steady motion brings a sense of order, knowing exactly which stars will be where each night. In a 24 hour period, a star's position in Earth's sky will change by 4 minutes (known as a sidereal day). It makes planning shots like this over the Bighorn Mountains easy. No constellation is more widely visible around the world than Orion. And it's much more than just a belt and shield. A long exposure reveals faint details and colors that the naked eye could never see. Nebulas like Barnard's Loop, the Flame, Horsehead, Seagull, and Rosette are all hiding in plain sight, in wavelengths of light beyond human vision. All these wonders of space were never known until someone invented cameras sensitive enough to see them.
    Orion Beyond the Bighorns
  • Every March at approximately 10PM, Andromeda has a close encounter with the iconic Devils Tower. When you look up at the stars, everything you can see with your eyes is contained within the Milky Way galaxy. But Andromeda is the exception. At 2.5 million light years away, it represents the farthest object visible to the naked eye. When you count the faint spiral arms, it is the same angular size in our sky as 6 full moons. Andromeda is thought to have about the same mass as our own galaxy. And just like the Milky Way, it is orbited by 2 satellite galaxies. Andromeda is actually best viewed in the fall, because that is when it’s  highest in the sky. To get this picture I used a star tracking mount to capture greater detail, combined with an untracked image of the tower.
    Andromeda Close Encounter
  • After hearing about a comet named C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), I finally got to see it for myself on this morning. Not really knowing what to expect, I set my alarm for 3AM. I was immediately blown away by how big and bright it is. Even after most of the stars had faded out against the light of dawn, it was still visible. The long tail stretched at least 5° across the northeast sky. I’m looking forward to getting more pictures of this comet, but that is assuming it holds together. Comets are very unpredictable. 2 of them were hyped up earlier this year, only to break apart before ever getting bright. Then Comet NEOWISE came as a bit of surprise. This was taken at Fort Peck Lake, the largest in Montana. With it’s many coves, arms, and inlets, the reservoir has a shoreline of more than 1,500 miles.
    Comet at Fort Peck Lake
  • All night long lightning flashed to the north over Steamboat Point in the Bighorn Mountains. Then at 2:30AM Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE rose above the horizon. Finally as the first light of dawn came, noctilucent clouds appeared. It was the brightest display I've ever seen. Seeing all these things at the same time made it a night to remember.
    A Night to Remember
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