Been awhile, eh?

Every couple of months I will venture out on a moonless night and photograph the stars.  Just to do it.  Maybe it’s a meteor shower, or a long exposure of a wild land fire.  It’s a little more difficult theses days, well, because I like my sleep.  With the geomagnetic storm that slammed in to Earth during the last day or so,  the hype would have you believe that we NorCal folks might get a glimpse of the show.  So I bit.  Hook line and sinker.

A few things.

-It’s felt like spring/summer all winter-even at night- I took for granted it would be fairly pleasant while photographing around midnight.   Well after the latest rain storm that passed (rain?) a pressure gradient set-up yesterday afternoon and continued in to the wee hours.  So above Lake Sonoma, the wind was howling.  It was cold.  I haven’t worn a sweatshirt or a jacket since January and luckily I had both in my car.

-I forgot my flashlight.  iPhone works, but the battery goes pretty quickly.

-It’s very dark when there is no moon.  Just ask the gopher holes.

-We have a lot of light pollution in the area, which leads to a lot of weird colors, especially at 30 second exposures.

-A Deer can look like bigfoot at midnight.

-Javelina really are blind.  Several passed 20 yards away and never attacked.  That’s good. I didn’t have any wild pig repellent.

-Skaggs Springs Road above the lake is possibly the smoothest mountain road I’ve ever driven.

Whatever; I did make a couple of pretty pictures, but no Northern Lights.

Sigh.

The light wash from Cloverdale city lights can be seen during a long exposure of the night sky, Tuesday March 17, 2915.  (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015

The light wash from Cloverdale and Geyserville city lights can be seen during a long exposure of the night sky, Tuesday March 17, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015

A ranch entrance and stars durinf=g a long exposure Tuesday March 17, 2015.  (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015

A ranch entrance and stars during a long exposure, Tuesday March 17, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015

-Kent Porter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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