Finally the weather was cooperating and we had a relatively cool, clear evening. Sky Tonight had predicted a good viewing night for Comet 13P/Olbers in the northwest sky for a few hours after sunset before dropping below the horizon. It had been a while since I tackled some astrophotography, and I do enjoy the peace and quiet of a night shoot. So I packed my gear and headed out to Watkins Lake for the evening where I have a favorite little ridge that provides excellent views in all directions without obstruction. As the sunset faded I waited through the “blue hour” for the sky to darken and the stars to shine.
Shooting at night in a remote area can lead to some unusual (maybe spooky?) encounters. While I was waiting for the sky to darken I heard a rustling of the tall grasses behind me. It grew louder and I slowly turned and found a young coyote, approximately 10 feet away, giving me the eye! I’m not sure who was more surprised by the encounter but he turned and hightailed it back down the ridge. A few minutes later I heard a deer crashing through the brush along the lake below me. Encounters like this tend to make one hyper vigilant in the dark.
The Sky Tonight app is very useful in pinpointing where various celestial objects will be in the sky. On this night the comet should have been visible just off the front foot of the constellation Ursa Major, so I spent several hours shooting that region of the sky. Unfortunately with astrophotography of deep sky objects, using just a camera/lens setup with no telescope it can be hit or miss. And after getting home and scanning all the images on my computer I had to conclude this evening’s goal had been a miss. But all was not lost as I did manage to capture this image of the Milky Way galaxy rising over Watkins Lake. A slight shift in expectations, but I consider it a fun evening and that’s what counts.
I guess it was a night for weird animal encounters. On my drive home along dark country roads I had a stare down with a Possum who decided the road at night was his domain; I went around on the shoulder after agreeing the night was his. A little further along my headlights picked out a dark lump along the roadside that was moving very oddly. Turns out a family of 4 Raccoons were investigating a dead skunk; probably looking for an easy dinner. A totally strange night for photography!
This last encounter leads me to an animal mystery story from our own backyard. This spring our Serviceberry trees were loaded with flowers, which turned into an abundance of edible berries. I think the warm wet spring worked to the tree’s advantage because the berry crop was one of the best we’ve seen since planting them 12 years ago. However, about a month ago we noticed every morning a large piece of two Serviceberry trees were broken.
We did have pretty high winds through the night, but why only 2 of the 8 trees ended up with broken branches was a mystery. It was so bad one of the trees is now half the size of the others. To solve the mystery, I set up my trail camera through the night. Check out the below video for the culprits. Note, the berry laden branches were typically 4 to 12 foot above the ground, not at ground level!
In subsequent videos I was able to watch the mother Raccoon climb the tree and use her weight to bend the branch down to ground level to feed her 4 youngsters. But as Kathleen reminded me, every morning as I went out to cut off the broken branches, we planted these trees to feed the wildlife! We can check that one off the list as a success.
Before we leave this post, i want to share with you 3 additional images I captured over the last few weeks.
If you enjoyed this Journal entry, please drop me a comment below, feel free to share with your friends, and visit my website Terrance Alexander Photography. My next adventure will be coming this weekend with the 2024 Thunder Over Michigan airshow at Willow Run Airport. This year is a salute to the 50th anniversary of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Wow, I still remember when the aircraft was introduced to active service! Anyway, the airshow will be the subject of a future post.
Terrance Alexander
Terry, thanks for these lovely images, especially the milkweed and the Milky Way- not sure if there is a theme there!
Magical experiences expanding our realm of relations. Thanks very much.
Bill
My pleasure!
Terry –
Things can get surprisingly spooky for me during night-sky photography. I used to be a mostly wary of larger carnivores here in Idaho, but another night-sky photographer told me that his biggest concern was roaming skunks and badgers. So now I have those to consider as well.
Hot now in Teton Valley, and with smoke from Oregon fires. Hopefully will clear in time for Perseid meteors in August.
I’ve seen quite a few coyotes but no skunks (thanks for that thought by the way!). The other creature that makes me wary out at the lake is large deer during mating season – between the very loud grunts and the noise noise crashing through the underbrush, it can raise the hair on the back of my neck. But the one that really spooks me are feral hogs that have been spotted in local counties.
Good luck with the smoke – we dealt with it most of last summer from Canadian wildfires.