Pauline Jaffe
July 2025 - Grand Canyon Stars
About the Image(s)
I have been quite busy as my youngest child, my 25-year-old daughter is getting married in 6 weeks. We've been busy!
The image above is from the sky above the Grand Canyon. It is magnificent. The Grand Canyon is certified as an International Dark Sky Park. Every year for the past 35 years they have hosted Star Parties in June. It is an incredible experience. We were there for 3 of the nights and there were 87 + telescopes set up by the telescope owners and they were very welcoming showing what they were looking at.
You can look into the Canyon during the day and see rocks formed millions of years ago and at night look up at the sky and see stars formed millions of light years away! What more do I need to say!!!
I took the image with my Nikon Z 6 ii and 24 to 70 lens. I used a focal length of 30. I used shutter speeds at 5 seconds, 6, seconds, 8 seconds, and 10 seconds and stacked the images.
Please let me know what you think.
5 comments posted
I have done several night shoots of the milky way from Yosemite while my husband naps in the jeep. I use a focal length of infinity and shutter speed of around 20 seconds with aperture of as low as I can go and ISO around 2500 (gotta play with this a little sometimes). I'm terrible at stacking images. You are way ahead of me there.
It looks like you added a vignette. I like to see the entire image and sometimes light up the foreground. Posted: 07/10/2025 19:24:47
Posted: 07/10/2025 20:25:47
I have never tried a Milky Way type shot, so you are way above my pay grade here. That said, I like your shot, and I like it better with the vignette rather than the one you posted without it. Because of how the foreground trees combine with the vignette, it makes the overall image look like it has an irregular shape which I find visually intriguing. Nice job. Grand Canyon is an incredible place. And I hope your daughter's wedding comes off without a hitch. Posted: 07/13/2025 03:08:49