Astrophotography

One of my goals this year was to try my hand at astrophotography…taking photos of the dark sky and try to capture stars and the milky way. I figured a balmy night out in a Nebraska field somewhere would be where it would happen. However, while we were in Moab on our trip back to Nebraska from California, I read that Arches National Park is one of the designated Dark Sky photography places in the world. We were there for 2 nights. We went the first night….thankfully, as the next evening had clouds (great for sunset photography….not for astrophotography!) It was cold and so so so quiet as we were the only ones in the park taking night photos. It takes about 30 seconds for each photo….then you have to tweak things, so it is a long process. You are also doing everything in the dark….you are only supposed to use red lights if you need to illuminate anything. I took a lot of photos and Rich was really patient and helpful. Only a few turned out decent as I wasn’t really prepared for doing this, but wanted to jump on the opportunity to try. There were so many stars out! It felt I was a first grade art project and someone was sprinkling glitter over me. It was like nothing I have ever seen. I am so glad I got to share that with Rich. It was just so amazing. Most of what you are seeing here was visible to the naked eye. Here’s my starter astrophotography shots! I will try it again!