Kevin Palmer

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  • The Geminid Meteor Shower was very active in 2018. This view is looking south from Diamond Butte, Montana.
    Night of the Falling Stars
  • The milky way glowed above Lake DeSmet, Wyoming, on a summer night. The red planet Mars is visible on the far right. I stood on a small rock in the lake for this self portrait.
    Counting the Stars
  • Stars appear to rotate above this abandoned barn in 3 hours time. In reality it is the stars that are stationary and the earth that is rotating. In 23 hours and 56 minutes, the stars make one counterclockwise rotation of 360 degrees. This 4 minute difference is what causes the stars to change position from night to night, and the constellations to change from season to season. Earth's northern axis happens to be pointed at Polaris, or the North Star. It hardly moves at all in the course of a night. For thousands of years people have been using Polaris to navigate. It not only tells you which way is north, but it also tells you your latitude. In this case the North Star was 40 degrees above the horizon. Those in the southern hemisphere do not have such a star to guide them.<br />
I found this old barn in Jim Edgar State Park a couple nights ago.
    Dark Barn Startrail
  • 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 stars of the milky way galaxy glow above Blacktooth Mountain at 1AM on a July night. From most places, clouds are easily visible at night because they are lit up by light pollution underneath. But under a sky this dark, you can't see the clouds. You only notice the absence of stars as a cloud passes by. These thin clouds gave halos to the brighter stars and planets. The bright red object on the right is Mars. To the left in the constellation Scorpius is the red supergiant star Antares. The name in Greek means "like-Mars" since it's a similar color, and often the same brightness as the red planet. Just above that is Saturn, the 2nd brightest object in the picture.
    Jewels of the Night
  • 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
  • A lone pine tree on the edge of Sibley Lake points to the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) constellation above. The 2 stars on the end point to Polaris, the North Star on the left. All night long the Big Dipper will rotate counterclockwise while the North Star remains stationary. I added diffraction spikes to these 8 stars to make them stand out more.
    The Pointer
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: May 6, 2014
    Sleep Eludes Me
  • This night was a rare one. The weather was completely clear with no winds, the moon had set, and the temperature was even in the positives. Conditions were perfect for stargazing, and I had to take advantage of it. The dead silence in these grassy hills outside of Buffalo was only interrupted by the occasional howl of a coyote. I pointed my camera north and took pictures for 90 minutes, which I combined into this star trail image. It shows the stars apparent motion caused by the Earth's rotation. Each star in the northern sky takes 24 hours (23:56 to be precise) to make a complete revolution in a counterclockwise direction. The height of the North Star (also known as Polaris) is always equal to the latitude - 44° in this case. Any star less than 44° away from Polaris is circumpolar, which means it never goes below the horizon. The red at the bottom of the picture was a very dim appearance of the aurora. I couldn't see it with my eyes.
    Revolutions
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Stargazer
  • At the end of July I had the chance to shoot the most detailed milky way nightscape photo I've ever taken. Ever since making a similar photo in Utah, I've wanted to repeat it, but finding the right location, the right weather, at the right time isn't easy. After a stunning sunset over Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, the clouds cleared out and the conditions began to come together. This image is a combination of 3 separate pictures, totaling nearly 1 hour of exposure time. First I placed my tripod on the edge of the canyon, then aligned my star tracking mount on Polaris (the north star), and then shot two 18-minute exposures of the milky way. Then I turned the tracking mount off, and shot a similar exposure of just the canyon, and later stitched the 3 shots together. Without a tracking mount, I'm normally limited to 30-second exposures before the stars start to blur. In addition to the milky way, the planets Saturn and Mars, and traces of green airglow are also visible. The light pollution along the horizon is from the towns of Lovell and Powell. While I was shooting this, bats kept fluttering around my head, eating all the gnats gathered around the puddles after a recent rain.
    Celestial River
  • 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
  • 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
  • It was 1AM when my alarm went off. Between shooting the sunset, the stars, and the sunrise, I wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. After slipping into my shoes that were still damp from trudging through the snow, I stepped out of my tent into the cold air. With the temperature near freezing and a strong breeze blowing, it certainly didn't feel like the first day of July. But the weather couldn't be more perfect for shooting the milky way galaxy. The moon was setting in the west, leaving me 2 hours of darkness to shoot a time lapse before morning twilight set in. This is a shot I've wanted to take since last year when I first heard about this spot. It's an alpine meadow called Highland Park set at the base of the 13,000' Blacktooth Mountain in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. I've tried shooting the milky way over these peaks before, but they were always too far away, I had to get closer. But the conditions needed to be perfect before I made the 18 mile trek. Between the snow levels, moon phase, position of the milky way, and weather conditions I knew I may only have a couple chances to get this shot. The atmosphere is a lot thinner at 10,000 feet and the stars seemed just a little bit closer on this night.
    Close to Heaven
  • 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
  • Stars rise over Salt Creek in Weldon Springs State Park. This startrail sequence covers shows the stars movement in 73 minutes. <br />
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Date Taken: August 13, 2014
    Weldon Springs Startrails
  • The milky way looked stunning at Lily Lake, Idaho. The stars were extra clear because there was no light pollution at all, the weather was perfect, the moon was out of the way, and this was at a higher elevation. The purple spot at the top is known as the North America nebula. The 3 brightest stars in this picture form the summer triangle.
    Lily Lake Milky Way
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: 1/30/14
    Winter Pentagon
  • 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
  • The milky way was shining brilliantly on the morning of summer solstice, the shortest night of the year. Thin clouds were making haloes around the brighter stars and the planet Saturn. A long exposure revealed colors invisible to the human eye, including green airglow and purple nebulae. There wasn't a meteor shower going on, but I captured this bright random meteor in one of the time lapse frames. On any given night there are an average of 6 sporadic meteors per hour visible under a dark sky. The skies here were very dark, with amazing views of the Bighorn Mountains in every direction. This was taken from a fire lookout tower on the 9,500' summit of Black Mountain.
    Solstice Meteor
  • It was 1AM and the stars were twinkling wildly above the Bighorn Mountains. Twinkling (also known as scintillation) is caused by the earth's atmosphere bending or refracting starlight. Planets do not twinkle because they are not a pinpoint source of light. The effect is most noticeable on nights with strong winds and differing air temperatures in the upper atmosphere. The wind chill on this night at 7,000 feet was far below zero Fahrenheit. In the center of the photo is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It is visible from anywhere on earth except for the very northern Arctic. Sirius is known for twinkling a rainbow of colors when it first rises. On the upper right is the constellation Orion with the bright band of the winter milky way to the left.
    Sirius-ly Cold
  • Shooting stars fill the sky during the Geminid meteor shower above the Mississippi River Valley. In the 2 hours after the moon set, I counted about 90 meteors. I also enjoyed watching Comet Lovejoy rise through binoculars and with the naked eye. The comet and it's tail can be seen over the haze on the lower right. I couldn't have asked for better weather for this meteor shower. Wind chills were -15 the night before, and a big snowstorm was arriving in the late morning. But in between the skies were clear with mild temperatures in the mid-20's.<br />
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Date Taken: 12/13/13
    Gifts from Gemini
  • In December of 2018 Comet 46P/Wirtanen flew by the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus. Also known as the Seven Sisters, this star cluster is one of the closest to Earth at a distance of about 444 light years away. The extra hot and luminous stars cast their light on the nearby reflection nebula, which gives it the blue color. Comet 46P/Wirtanen was at it's closest approach just 7.2 million miles (11.5 million km) away from Earth. This makes it one of the top 10 closest comet encounters of the Space Age. While they look the same size in this image, the comet is quite a bit fainter, just barely detectable to the naked eye. The nucleus of the comet is less than 1 mile wide, but it's diffuse coma (cometary atmosphere) is larger than the planet Jupiter.
    The Flyby
  • In January I went out to capture one of my favorite photogenic trees late at night. It sits by itself in a field near a small abandoned house. Cassiopeia, one of the most recognizable constellations, is like a celestial clock. In 23 hours and 56 minutes it will make one rotation around the North Star. But unlike a clock, it spins counterclockwise. When closest to the horizon the 5 brightest stars make the shape of a W, but when it's highest overhead it looks like an M. From anywhere above 35°N, Cassiopeia is circumpolar. That means the constellation neither rises nor sets, always staying above the horizon. In order to get a sharper picture I shot a 12-minute exposure of the foreground, and the tree branches didn't even move an inch. Windless nights are quite rare during winter in Wyoming.
    Night On the Homestead
  • It was 4AM in the grasslands of southeast Montana. I was spending the night under the stars while my camera clicked away, but the cold breeze made sleep hard to come by. I thought I detected a bright flash of light, but wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me. It wasn't until I got home that I found the source: a fireball meteor. According to American Meteor Society reports, the meteorite (if it survived) likely fell near the CO/WY border some 300 miles away. It theoretically should have been visible from at least 10 states, I can only imagine how bright it must have been overhead. The green color reveals the composition to be mostly nickel, and it left behind a vapor trail (known as a persistent train) for over 10 minutes afterwards. My only goal was to capture the milky way for the first time this year after it hid behind the sun for the winter. The fireball was just an unexpected bonus.
    One In a Million
  • The Beartooth Highway is a 68 mile long road that starts in Red Lodge, Montana, and ends at the northeast entrance to Yellowstone. The steep, winding highway reaches elevations above 10,000 feet and is known for getting snow anytime of the year. Snow drifts up to 40 feet high were encountered earlier in the day. This shot was taken at 11PM when the moon was illuminating Pilot and Index Peaks. Resembling the Matterhorn in the Alps, Pilot Peak can be seen near the end of the highway outside of Cooke City. The twin stars of Gemini as well as the Beehive star cluster were setting behind the two peaks.
    Twin Peaks
  • 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 />
<br />
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
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Bugs, Bats, and Bullfrogs
  • At 2AM Sirius was casting a long, shimmering reflection on the Bighorn River just before it set. With a magnitude of -1.5, Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. And at a distance of 8.6 light years away, it’s the 8th closest to Earth. Under certain atmospheric conditions when it's low on the horizon this star is known to twinkle wildly and flash a wide range of colors. This happens more often than other astronomical objects because of it’s brightness (planets do not twinkle). Sirius is found in the constellation of Canis Major and is also called the Dog Star. The ancient Greeks used to watch for the first appearance of Sirius in July, which marked the beginning of the “dog days of summer,” the hottest part of the year.
    Brightest Star Reflection
  • After a 35-minute ride on a chairlift in the dark, I arrived at the Aurora Sky Station, 1000 meters above sea level near the top of the mountain Nuolja. Below stretched out a panoramic view of the lake Torneträsk, the lights from Abisko village, and other peaks of the Scandinavian Mountains. The weather was ideal. Even though temperatures were at the lower limit in which the lift is allowed to operate, the skies were clear and the wind was calm. Unfortunately the aurora was calm as well. The northern lights danced a little on the ride up, then faded to a weak glow barely perceptible for the rest of the night. But I tried to make the most of my time up here by shooting this startrail image. I processed it in a way to fade the trails into the background while bringing out the colors of the faint green aurora band. Even though my camera was pointed due north, it was not possible to include the North Star in the shot, at least not without shooting vertically. In Arctic latitudes the North Celestial Pole is too high up in the sky.
    Nuolja Star Trails
  • In December the planet Venus graced the western sky shortly after sunset. Aside from the moon, no other object in the night sky shines brighter. Venus always follows or precedes the sun in the same path known as the ecliptic. It’s also called the Evening Star or Morning Star, depending on which side of the sun it’s on. Because it’s an inner planet, Venus is never more than 47° from the sun in Earth’s sky. Anyone who points a telescope at the planet would notice that Venus goes through phases much like the moon. It is fully illuminated when it’s on the opposite side of the sun farthest from Earth. When it’s closest to Earth it turns into a narrow crescent. Galileo first observed the phases of Venus 400 years ago, which helped confirm the heliocentric model of the solar system. I attempted to capture Venus setting over Cloud Peak, but clouds were hugging the tops of the peaks and hid them from view.
    The Evening Star
  • 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
  • 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
  • I had a few hours to shoot the stars over the Tetons before clouds would move in.
    Night at Willow Flats
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Stars rise above Black Mountain on a cold winter night.
    Black Night
  • 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
  • I came to Laguna Beach to photograph the milky way. But the marine layer had other plans and only a few stars were visible in between clouds.
    Hole in the Sky
  • 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
  • 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
  • Ever since I saw this mountain engulfed by a storm earlier in the summer, I was hoping to have a chance to get some better pictures of it. There's something about a lone isolated mountain that's just begging to be photographed under the stars. There are at least 10 Square Buttes in Montana, and this one isn't even the most popular. That makes it hard to find information on it. In case you didn't know, a butte is a flat-topped mountain with steep sides. This particular Square Butte rises 2600 feet above a town with the same name and a population of 20. Finding the right spot to place my tripod isn't always easy. I needed to be NNE of the butte, not too close and not too far with no hills or anything else in my way. There was no time to waste since the milky way and Jupiter were in position as soon as it got dark. The milky way won't be visible for too much longer before it passes behind the sun for the winter. To get a sharper picture I took a 12-minute exposure of the mountain and combined it with a shorter exposure of the sky.
    Galactic Butte
  • 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.
    Blood Moon Tower
  • Distant flashes of lightning kept me awake much of the night at Joshua Tree National Park. Finally at 4am, I got up to try to photograph it. I never got any bolts because the lightning was too sporadic. In this image a flash of lightning behind me lit up the rocks, while a smaller storm moves under the moon and stars.<br />
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Date Taken: August 20, 2014
    Night of the Monsoon
  • Ever since I found this area of dead trees in the water at Banner Marsh, I wanted to get some pictures of it under the milky way. After driving out here, clouds began covering the sky. I thought I wouldn't get any pictures of the stars, but then it cleared shortly before 2am.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 6, 2014
    The Dead of Night
  • In June of 2013 I drove into southeast Iowa looking for the darkest sky I could find. The stars were breathtaking around Lake Sugema, Iowa. I could see more detail in the milky way than I had ever seen before. To the left is green airglow, which is a weak emission of light by the earth's atmosphere. On this night I also saw about 15 meteors.
    Lake Sugema Milky Way
  • It was a beautiful night last night. A very active lightning storm receded into the distance underneath an otherwise clear and dark sky filled with stars. Mars was shining a brilliant red above the storm, and I was just barely able to fit the milky way in the frame.
    Flashing Galaxy
  • Up until the lunar eclipse started, I still wasn't sure I would be able to see it. In between an overcast day and an incoming snowstorm, weather models were showing a brief clearing. The clouds parted not a moment too soon. Compared to the last recent eclipse, the moon was a lot higher in the sky at 50°, which made it more challenging to shoot with a foreground. I needed to find something tall, where I could set up my camera underneath and point it southeast. The Needle's Eye is a natural arch that stands at the entrance to Tongue River Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains. I knew I wouldn't be able to fit the moon inside the arch, but just above it. The scattered clouds which remained made a red halo around the eclipsed moon. Closer to the arch is a cluster of stars known as The Beehive.
    Threading the Needle
  • The blues of twilight begin to overtake the stars at 6AM. This view was from my campsite at Elk Lake in the Cloud Peak Wilderness.
    The Coming Dawn
  • In early January I stayed at this USFS cabin high in the Bighorn Mountains on a frigid night. The cabin was very rustic with no running water and only a wood-burning stove for heat. The walls creaked as they heated up and I quickly learned that it's a lot of work trying to keep a cabin like this warm in subzero temperatures. But it did have electricity, and I left the lights on to cast shadows across the snowdrifts. My goal was to capture the elusive Quadrantid meteor shower. It's rarely observed simply because the weather is rarely ideal in early January. The sky was mostly clear at 10pm, but then snow showers moved in and obscured the stars just before the meteors were expected to pick up. But it was still a cool experience staying in this old log cabin.
    Cabin Fever
  • The milky way shines in the dark skies behind a cliff at Garden of the Gods, Illinois. I used a flashlight to light paint the cliffs from an angle, which created shadows and texture. The sky was a bit hazy which made the stars a little less clear.<br />
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Date Taken: July 22, 2014
    Behind the Cliff
  • 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
  • Fireflies fly in front of a tree at Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota. The stars of the milky way shine in the sky above.
    The Dark Tree
  • Thousands of stars forming the milky way galaxy are seen above a deep canyon in Utah. The Colorado River flows 2000 feet below the rim of Dead Horse Point into Canyonlands National Park. The bright light on the horizon is the planet Venus. There is no other object in the night sky brighter than Venus except for the moon. The clear weather, dry air, and dark skies make this area one of the best in the country for stargazing.<br />
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Date Taken: 11/5/2013
    Dark Chasm
  • 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
  • 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
  • There's nothing quite like spending the night on top of a mountain. High above any haze and light pollution, the air up here is extra clear. Stars stretch from horizon to horizon. Their slow and steady movement is interrupted by the quick flashes of meteors and satellites. This time of year the milky way is up completely by the time it gets dark. Normally camping on a peak is not an option since it's too exposed to the wind and storms, plus the ground is too rocky and sloped to set up a tent. That's why I like to stay in fire lookout towers when possible. This particular one (Sheep Mountain in the Bighorns) is very popular and has to be reserved months in advance. The accommodations may be rustic but I prefer this to any hotel. You simply can't beat the views.
    Night on the Summit
  • The deep blue colors of twilight glow above an unnamed mountain above Red Grade Road. After snowshoeing up here for the sunset, I stayed until the stars came out and the moon rose.
    Twilight Snowshoe
  • The milky way galaxy is reflected in the calm waters of Sibley Lake. Here in the Bighorn Mountains there wasn't even a hint of light pollution and the stars were very clear.
    Sibley Lake Milky Way
  • The lookout at the top of Cougar Peak, Montana, is lit up from the flames of a small fire. The stars of the northern milky way shine in the background.
    Cougar Peak Lookout
  • 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
  • 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
  • This might be my favorite campsite I've ever found while backpacking. The melodic sounds of elk would occasionally disturb the silence as dozens of them grazed in the meadow below. I awoke at 1AM just before the moon set so I could shoot the milky way.
    5,000 Star Hotel
  • It may have been past midnight, but this roadside pond was teeming with life that was very much awake. Green eyes reflected back at me as cows shuffled around. Bats swooped through the air to catch the swarms of insects. The calls of an owl, geese, killdeer, and other unidentified birds added to the chorus of crickets and squeaking mice. The water was a near perfect mirror, which is a rare sight in windy Wyoming. Earlier in the spring it’s necessary to wait until the early morning hours to see the Milky Way. But at this time of year the core of the galaxy is up completely by the time it gets dark. The shooting star was just an unexpected bonus. There was no meteor shower happening, but on any given night about 6 meteors are visible per hour from dark skies. These are called sporadic meteors, and somehow I captured 2 bright ones in less than an hour. In the center of the image is Jupiter next to the fainter planet Saturn.
    Second Sporadic
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: 12/14/2014
    Meteor Under Polaris
  • 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
  • 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
  • I've been wanting to get an image like this for a long time. But it's been several years since we've had a comet this bright. This comet named 46P/Wirtanen was discovered in 1948 and will make it's closest approach to Earth next week. I had my doubts that this picture would happen. The comet would only be positioned above this snowy mountain for 3 nights at most. Even rarer than a clear night in December, I needed a night with no wind. But at 2AM on December 7th, everything came together. The temperature hovered around 0°F; it was a frosty nostril kind of night. When I first arrived in the Bighorn Mountains the comet was just visible to the naked eye, but the best view was through binoculars. In my pictures, it's about 2-3X the angular size of the moon. To make this image I captured a series of 6 shots using a star tracking mount. I had to be careful to align everything as accurately as possible while processing.
    Comet and Mountain
  • 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
  • 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
  • In early January is the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. Meteor rates weren't nearly as prolific as the Geminids of December. But I still wanted to photograph it since the moon phase was favorable and few pictures of this astronomical event exist. With decent weather in the forecast, I climbed to the top of a 9,477' mountain and spent the night there. The expansive views to the north included Meadowlark Lake, the tallest peaks of the Bighorns, and the High Park meadow. After chasing a mouse out of my backpack I set my camera to take pictures for most of the night. The shower seemed to be most active between about 10PM and midnight. That's when my camera captured these 8 meteors, although 3 of them were halfway out of the frame. I stitched together a few images for the bottom half of the picture, this allowed me to correct the distortion in the trees.
    8 Quadrantid Meteors
  • 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
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: 12/14/2014
    Out of the Blue
  • 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
  • It wasn't just a good night for watching lightning, there were plenty of Delta Aquarid meteors as well. This one was particularly colorful.
    Lightning and Delta Aquarid
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • I caught this lucky meteor falling through the aurora at 1:30AM. The northern lights were so dim that I could barely notice them with my eyes, but the camera picked up more of the colors.
    Pillars and Meteor
  • 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. But this was one of the brighter meteors captured, flying in between Orion and Sirius.
    Catching a Gem
  • 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. The aurora transformed into all kinds of interesting shapes, to me this shot looked like a surfing brontosaurus.
    Surfing Brontosaurus
  • A bright Perseid meteor burns up in the earth's atmosphere while the milky way stands on end in the west. After finding the nearby campground full, I drove a dirt road up to 10,000 feet until I found a spot flat enough to camp. With no trees up here, there was a great view of the sky and the lights below are from the town of Greybull. Over the 2 nights of the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August I captured nearly 1,000 images with about 10% of them containing meteors. This one was the brightest and the longest, spanning over 15 degrees of sky. I nearly missed it because it was the very first frame of my time lapse. Perseid meteors are made up of small pieces of comet debris that cross the Earth's orbit every year. It is the extreme speed at which it enters the atmosphere (over 100,000 mph) that causes the debris to vaporize and glow. The color of the trail reveals the chemical composition. The green is nickel or magnesium, and the red is ionized oxygen or nitrogen in the upper atmosphere.
    The Longest Streak
  • 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 milky way galaxy rises above Black Mountain while a Lyrid meteor pierces the sky.
    Milky Way and Lyrid
  • 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
  • The northern lights dance above Deadman's Basin Reservoir while a fireball meteor flies through the sky.
    Aurora and Fireball
  • At 1AM the aurora spread out and filled almost the entire sky above southern Iceland, while the moon illuminated the landscape.
    Green Skies at Night
  • A sporadic meteor shoots through the sky while the milky way glows above Healy Reservoir.
    Healy Milky Way
  • Hunting for the aurora from the mid-latitudes can be a frustrating endeavor. For every night that I've clearly seen the northern lights, there are 2 more where I've gone out only to see the aurora quickly fade or clouds overtake the sky. But perfect nights like this one make it all worth it. After NOAA issued a geomagnetic storm warning, I headed for the Bighorn Mountains. The aurora was obvious as soon as I stepped out of my car. But it was just a green glow without any structure or movement. At 12:30AM, the lights began to grow brighter. Pillars topped with purple and red suddenly rose up and moved rapidly back and forth. This is called a substorm. Charged particles in the solar wind causes pressure to build up against Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field will suddenly 'snap' and the release of energy makes the aurora intensify. Substorms are unpredictable and often last only minutes. In this frame I caught a Lyrid meteor burning up above Steamboat Point.
    Dawn of the North
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: 1/30/14
    Kelso Night
  • 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 />
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Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Ivy Barn Night
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
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