Night Skies

I started out shooting night images as a single exposure many years ago, using shutter speeds between 20-30 sec and high ISO. As I learned more, I began to incorporate image stacking, where you take between 10 and 50 images at very high ISO and relatively short exposures around 6-7 seconds and use special software to stack the images together to eliminate noise and bring out details of the cumulative exposures. I then progressed to using start trackers which are a physical device that moves the camera in time with the earth’s rotation allowing you to take  long exposures from 2 – 5 minutes with sharp stars. Each technique produces a different look and result. These images are a mix of techniques over the years.

During the pandemic I spent a lot of time doing night sky images. I spent most of my time in the Mono Lake Basin, with additional trips to Death Valley and to Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness in New Mexico.  I learned how to use Starry Landscape Stacker software for my stacking and used both a Move-Shoot-Move tracker and a Polaris electric tripod head tracker.

Enjoy the images.