Beautiful Night Sky over the Bay

I am on the verge to go on a month-long trip to South America but wanted to share some of my new night images taken during the last month.  I will travel overland in Patagonia visiting glaciers and rugged mountains before ending up at the Magellan Street where I will explore the waters and marine life on a small boat for another week.

Moon-rise over Bay Bridge

The first full moon in the year is called the wolf moon and legend has it the ancient people named is such since hungry wolves could be heard more in the winter time the food sources scarce in January and more howling to be heard through the cold nights.

So it was the Wolf Moon that I captured last weekend over the Bay in the above time lapse video.  The images were captured over almost 2 hours and while my camera was working I connected with many photographers who were out on the Embarcadero photographing the raising moon.  Although cold, it was a beautiful evening.

The winter months are excellent for night sky photography since the sun sets early and the twilight is beautiful.  The sky is much clearer in the winter without the fog rolling in as is so often the case in the summer months.  However, finding ‘dark’ sky not polluted by the city lights can be a challenge.  So I spent many cold evenings and nights ‘out there’ capturing the night sky for star trails and time-lapse videos exploring various locations.  I found that even over the heavily lit Bay Area one can get interesting images despite the city lights and the heavy airline traffic streaking over the sky. 

Enjoy the sampling of last month’s images:

Star Trails and Sky Art over the Baylands and the Duck Pond

Twilight over the Ocean near Pescadero

Heavy airline traffic out of San Francisco Airport

A gorgeous but very cold night at Mount Hamilton

Looking South towards San Jose with its air traffic.

Beautiful Star Trails over Golden Gate

Pigeon Point Lighthouse -  a beacon against the night

It's raining stars above Golden Gate

... and last but not least, the stars right over my home, captured right from my balcony in Palo Alto.

I marvel at what the camera can see when our eyes only pick out a couple of stars.

For right now, I am off to new horizons again - but I know that I will continue to explore the night sky and my new-found nightlife further.

So long,

and til next time,

Meggi

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