RE: [APML] California Desert Night Sky

["Lane, Jason R" <jason.lane@navy.mil>]

Yeah.  I usually just go out into the desert south of town, where I get skies out to about 6.5 overhead.  Interestingly enough, I can see the light dome from L.A. area from there (to the east of town I can see the light dome from Vegas).  When I'm ambitious, I head up over the mountain pass on 178 into a little campsite in the Sierras where I can't see *any* light pollution.  One night last fall (I think) while I was set up there, I jotted down all the stars I could see in Pleaides.  When it was 5 degrees above the mountains (probably 15 degrees above horizontal), I could see down to 6.5.  When it went overhead, I saw stars down to 7+.  Other than that I've never really bothered measuring....my 1 hour exposures don't show sky fog and that's good enough for me :)

As for the butterflies and flowers:  Some friends went over to Death Valley late in March and said it was absolutely beautiful out there.  It was full of desert flowers up to their knees....looked like a Hollywood set, they said.  Badwater was a lake as well.  We've gotten a lot of rain...about 9" this rainy season (normal is 3").  All of the Northwest's weather came down to us. :)

Cheers,
Jason



-----Original Message-----
From: astro-photo-bounces@seds.org
[mailto:astro-photo-bounces@seds.org]On Behalf Of Chris Cook
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 2:18 PM
To: Discussion of Film Astrophotography
Subject: Re: [APML] California Desert Night Sky


Hi Jason -

Where do you normally shoot from in the Mojave?  I seem to remember you're
up near China Lake, right?

The butterflies were everywhere.  Really cool!

Chris

-----------------------------
Chris Cook Photography
www.cookphoto.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lane, Jason R" <jason.lane@navy.mil>
To: "Discussion of Film Astrophotography" <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 2:41 PM
Subject: Re: [APML] California Desert Night Sky


> Hi Chris,
>
> Very nice shots.  Living in the upper Mojave desert, I'm very satisfied
with how dark the skies can get.  I was out testing a friend's new 20D the
same night (I think) you were out and noticed the zodiacal band was really
bright and went up overhead.  Very neat to see....it was the first time I
had witnessed it but I knew right away what it had to be.
>
> Were the butterflies still out in force?  We drove down to Tuscon AZ
around Mar. 26th and our windshield committed an uncountable number of
butterfly murders while driving through the desert.  My wife didn't think it
was very funny when I turned on the wipers once along the way.
>
> Cheers,
> Jason
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: astro-photo-bounces@seds.org
> [mailto:astro-photo-bounces@seds.org]On Behalf Of Chris Cook
> Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 9:07 PM
> To: astro-photo@seds.org
> Subject: [APML] Desert Star Trails - that 400F stuff
>
>
> Hi all -
>
> Here's two star trail shots taken during my visit to CA.
>
> http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/dc-startrail-west.html
>
> http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/dc-startrail-north.html
>
>
> Also, for those into desert wildflowers, here are some pics from earlier
> that day from Joshua Tree NP......
>
> http://vsd.cape.com/~ccook/desert-flowers/ca-flower-trip.html
>
> Comments welcome.  Thanks for looking!
>
> Chris
>
> -----------------------------
> Chris Cook Photography
> www.cookphoto.com
>
>
>
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