About the Image(s)

Luna’s Torch

Nikon D850, 24-70mm lens, ISO 1600, f2.8, 15 second shutter speed.

The so called “Milky Way Season” is once again upon us. Beginning in March and extending into November the Milky Way becomes visible in the northern hemisphere and this means on clear nights I’ll be out with my camera photographing my favorite subject. Fortunately I live in an area where there are some dark skies and so when the weather gods grant me some a clear night I’m out and about.

March 15th was my first opportunity of this “season” to attempt a capture. Although the position, altitude and time changes throughout the season the basic compass direction is above the southern horizon between the south east and the south west. Fortunately south Florida has a dark southern sky as there is nothing between our southern coastline and South America and this makes viewing the Milky Way quite simple. This month’s image was taken from a roadside turnout along the Overseas Highway that extends from the Florida mainland to Key West. I left my home at about 11 p.m. and drove some three hours to reached my destination just south of the famed Seven Mile Bridge. After parking at the turnout I scrambled toward the sea over several hundred feet of seaweed covered wet sand and broken coral rock at low tide. As you can see from the image the Florida Keys are so flat that the rising and receding tides may expose great amounts of so called beach at low tide. Armed with my camera, a tripod, a folding lawn chair and my Yeti thermos of iced teas I sloshed across the beach in search of a foreground. Using the app Photophills I was able to locate a lone dead tree amid the exposed rocks seems to be in an adequate position, so I set up my chair and camera and settled in to wait for the Milky Way to rise. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a clear night rapidly became cloudy and much of the time the Milky Way was obscured from view. In this image you can part of the core (a reddish area just above the central branch of the tree) trying to push through the clouds. But the real star of this image is the moon just clinging to the horizon on the left edge. It was something different and the sole reason I kept this image. I would have liked to shift the camera angle more to the left but doing so would have introduced light from street lights on the 7 Mile Bridge so this composition was really all there was. The tree and the rocks in the foreground were illuminated by light painting using my Petzl hiker’s headlamp on low setting for only 2-3 seconds of the 15 second exposure. The ISO was 1600 and the aperture 2.8 with a focal length of 24mm. I remained in my chair, with my feet and tripod slowly being soaked by the rising tide until the light from the sunrise obliterated the Milky Way. Just before daylight, the clouds mostly cleared and I captured another image that showed more of the Milky Way. That image has been posted on the DD Group #36 page this month. Once the show was over, I packed my gear and began the drive home. Although I did stop at an outdoor breakfast nook for a Florida Keys breakfast. When I finally got home, it was time for a well earned nap.