Night sky photography fun – stars and Milky Way and glow sticks
A few days ago, a friend called and asked if I’d like to join her and her daughters for an aurora photography night. I suggested that she bring some glow sticks in case the aurora didn’t show, and when 3 more young people showed up, we had a lot of fun with them (the aurora never did show despite a good forecast).
It was just to be a fairly short outing, so we just went to the Fish Lake Road, initially to the aurora-viewing parking lot that’s been built. As Whitehorse gets brighter and brighter, the Fish Lake Road gets to be a poorer and poorer location for aurora viewing due to the light pollution. The clouds in the first photo, though, cleared a few minutes later so the light scatter was hugely reduced.
This is a shot I set up of me looking at the Milky Way.
When the kids showed up, the glow sticks were brought out. We hadn’t played with them before, so started out simple.
Sometimes the coordination between photographers and glowstickers was off 🙂
We soon got creative with the glow sticks and they were a great way to wish you all a “Merry Xmas” 🙂
… and a Happy 2018!
Throwing the glow sticks produced some cool effects – our own little mini-fireworks.
We then moved a few kilometers further up the Fish Lake Road for darker skies. The Milky Way shows up nicely over a heart formed by an engaged couple.
Without the glow stick light, the Milky Way showed up much better here, just a bit further from the city’s light pollution.
We then moved right to Fish Lake. Although further yet from the source of the light pollution, some ice crystals in the air were reflecting it.
One more shot looking across Fish Lake. The evening had been good fun, and took both of us off in new directions photographically. I’m extremely pleased with my new 10mm Rokinon lens, which is what I shot all of these photos with.
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