The Traveling Widower

Tag: astrophotography

  • Now and Then – Yosemite Half Dome

    A panoramic view of Half Dome, a prominent granite rock formation in Yosemite National Park, surrounded by rugged mountains and clear blue sky.

    Sept 11th, 2026

    Another unseasonably warm day in Yosemite – yesterday it was in the high 90’s, which is unpleasant for hiking here. What’s up with that? My friends arrived from the Bay Area around noon, so after chatting for a while, I transitioned into tour guide mode and we cruised around the park.  It’s not like I know the place that well, but I guess I have hit most of the main tourist attractions in my past visits.  We started off at Bridalveil falls, which this time of year, the falls are basically more like a wispy drizzle….very much like a veil I guess. 

    A waterfall cascading down a rocky cliff face against a clear blue sky.

    We did see a pretty, Stellars Jay on the way back to the car, posing for us in a tree.

    A blue jay perched on a tree branch, vocalizing in a natural forest setting.

    After that, we headed up my un-favorite road, to Glacier Point and sure enough, we had yet another road sloth in front of us. Which turned out to be some tour company car and the driver at least knew the rules and pulled over. Once we made it up to the Glacier Point parking lot, which is a lot different in the daylight, I remembered why this is one of the most popular locations in the park – the views of Half Dome and the surrounding granite peaks are astounding. We hiked around to the different view spots, took a lot of photos, and just stared out at the incredible scenery. 

    For me, there were some memories that came back staring at Half Dome. A little over ten years ago, I stood atop that massive pile of granite, after four months of preparation, all documented in my first attempt at a blog. It was quite an adventure. So here is a “Then and Now” shot. I was in a lot better shape ten years ago.

    A hiker poses triumphantly on a rock, raising both arms with a scenic mountain landscape and blue sky in the background.
    2016 on the top
    A man standing on a rocky outcrop, raising a hiking pole above his head, with a scenic mountain landscape and blue sky in the background.
    2026…no way

    And a few more shots of the view for the fun of it.

    Panoramic view of a mountainous landscape featuring Half Dome in Yosemite National Park under a clear blue sky.
    A scenic view of a waterfall cascading down a rocky cliffside, surrounded by dense evergreen trees and rugged terrain.

    The blog of my Half Dome adventure is still out there, on the Google blog site. Some of the photos have disappeared, but it’s still fun to read. 

    After reminiscing for a while, and buying some ice cream at the gift shop (no gelato so I had to make do), we headed on down to the valley to make a few stops to view El Capitan, that amazing wall of granite which is a mecca for serious rock climbers. Even at my very best in my climbing days, I would never have considered climbing any of the routes on that wall. And then there’s Alex Honnold who did one of the most difficult routes free solo. No ropes. 

    After that, it was late enough to head back to the hotel, rest and have some dinner. I had plans to do a bit more astrophotography in the evening, this time at the Tunnel View. Only a short drive from the hotel. In the dark of course. 

    The Tunnel View is a large, crowded parking area, on the valley side of a long tunnel which connects to the Glacier Point side of the park. The view from the parking lot is a classic for Yosemite – you have the expanse of the valley walls, including El Cap, straight out to Half Dome. Pretty nice. But, it attracts hordes of people to take selfies, so there is usually a major slowdown for cars and people crossing the road. It is listed as a good spot for astrophotography since you can capture the stars and the Milky Way, hovering over the valley if you are lucky. The problem is, car traffic and people with flashlights.  During the prime tourist season, you have heavy traffic going both ways at the tunnel, long into the night, and gobs of people who want to see that view on a starry night. Headlights are a problem for dark sky photography – with long exposures, bright lights ruin images by “light painting” the foreground. It may not be prime season but the traffic was very heavy when I pulled in at 7:40. And stayed heavy most of the time I was there. Plus, there were quite a few serious photographers there, including one brave soul who was trying to do a star trails shot – that’s where you take multiple photos, and use software to stitch together one of the circular streaks of stars. 

    So, I set up my tripod in an empty spot, and tried timing my exposures when it seemed like there were breaks in the traffic. It was fun talking with some of the other photographers, and I spent some time using my Photopills application, trying to find the Milky Way. I shot about 70 images, some of which are throw-aways due to light painting from headlights, and eventually headed back to the hotel around 9:30. I did not want a repeat of the previous night, with bad leg cramps on the drive back.

    I managed a few good shots – here’s the best so far.

    A panoramic view of Yosemite Valley under a starry night sky, featuring mountains and peaks illuminated by starlight, with shooting stars visible across the sky.

    One more day in the park tomorrow (Saturday), and then it’s back home. This has been a relaxing, fun trip so far, even with the traffic and slow drivers. Yosemite is such an incredibly beautiful place.

    Peace

  • Astrophotography Redux

    A night sky transitioning from twilight to darkness, featuring stars and silhouettes of pine trees along the horizon.
    Starlight, starbright, first star…..

    August 10th, 2026

    I’ve been planning all summer to get out for a night or two of Milky Way photography again. I really enjoyed the workshop in Arches last spring, and wanted to see if I could improve upon my composition and post-processing skills with a new set of photographs. 

    Unfortunately, I never seemed to be free to travel during the new moon, or I always seemed to be too tired for late evening photography when I was in dark sky locations like Sequoia National Park. The next thing I knew, it was August – I was running out of time. I decided when I returned from Colorado that I was going to find a reasonable place to go on the 10th, which was the exact date for the new moon. The question was….where to go. I wanted to get a reasonably interesting landscape, maybe not as spectacular as Arches, but perhaps with a nice lake or mountains for the foreground. Oh yeah, and I really did not want to drive very far, requiring camping or a long drive back home at 3AM.

    I first headed up US-50 to check out Wrights Lake in the Sierra, hoping the Milky Way would be in a position to reflect off the lake. I also wanted to check out Dark Lake, a short drive north of Wrights, which seemed promising in terms of location. I did this during the day, in case you were wondering – I have an application, PhotoPills, which magically shows the position of planets, stars or the Milky Way, at any location, at any date and time. Pretty amazing. You hold up your phone in the direction you would be photographing from, and the application superimposes for example, the Milky Way as it would appear at that time. You can than swipe to change the time, and see how that astronomical feature would appear. 

    A screenshot of a mobile app displaying a star map with grid lines, indicating celestial coordinates and a visible galaxy section. The date and time are shown at the top of the screen.
    Photophills – band across the middle is the Milky Way

    Wrights Lake is a relatively short drive from where I live – about a 90 minute drive, with the last bit on a rough but paved road. It is a state recreation area – nice place for kayaking and paddleboarding with camping spots and picnic tables which can be reserved ahead of time. I was hoping to find a picnic spot on the north shore of the recreation part of the lake, so that I would have a clear view of the sky looking South. After parking the car, I hiked along the path, trying my best to avoid a picnic group with very large mean looking dogs, and found what appeared to be a good spot to set up my tripod on the 10th. I pulled out my phone, brought up the PhotoPills application and found out that I really needed to be on the East shore of the lake which is all private property. Bummer. 

    A serene lake surrounded by tall pine trees under a clear blue sky.
    Dark Lake – wish I had one of the houses

    I moved on to the other location, Dark Lake, which is a short drive down a very narrow, one lane road. Beautiful spot but almost all of the shoreline is private property. The view would have been very limited from the one spot I could shoot from. Scratch Dark Lake from the list.  I really did not feel like negotiating that road at midnight, and then taking the long road back to the highway. 

    My next, and only other choice was along a road heading up to the Ice House Reservoir, about 14 miles west of where I was. This spot, named the Ice House Observation Point 1, was listed as one of the best dark sky locations in the Sacramento region, and appears to be a favorite for star gazers. It was on the way back home along US-50, but I had nothing better to do the next few days, and saved the excitement for later in the week. I lead a very exciting life these days. I had seen photos of this site and it did not appear to be too photogenic. There was a concrete divider wall at the start of the field, which limited parking, and what looked like a rusted crane in the middle of the field. Meh. The view to the south was not as restricted horizontally as Wrights Lake, but there was still the problem that much of the Milky Way would be blocked. But still, it was better than Wrights Lake. I was not overly thrilled with the limited parking and rusting crane, so I headed down to the second observation point, which for some reason, was indicated as closed on Google Maps. This turned out to be a better choice – a very large, open field, no wall, unlimited space for parking, and no rusting crane. This spot was also a on a small side road, so there would be less road traffic. Bright headlights and long exposure astrophotography do not work well together.

    A serene landscape at dusk featuring a grassy field bordered by tall trees under a pastel sky.
    Point 1 – rusted crane on the left
    A clear sky above a clearing with a sparse grassy area in the foreground, surrounded by tall green pine trees.
    Point 2 – gravel piles, but no crane. No snakes either

    OK, let’s move on and fast forward to the evening of the 10th. Sunset started around 7:30, with full darkness around 9 or so. I planned to get to the observation point by 7:30’ish so I could find a good spot to set the tripod, get my camp chair out, and settle in to wait for the stars to appear.

    A pink car parked on a dirt area with a camera on a tripod in the foreground and a backdrop of tall evergreen trees against a soft sunset sky.
    Twilight…waiting for stars

    As expected, I was the only one there. Cool. Unless a bear shows up. After finding my spot, another car pulled up, and out came four older guys (younger than me), who proceeded to wander off into the bushes, looking for snakes. Seriously. I asked what types and what would they do if they found some. It turns out they are reptile collectors, and used to come up to this site years back, when the highway department maintained a road salt shed on the open space. A funny group of guys….no snakes though, so they went off to search another area. That was the last car I saw that evening until I left. 

    OK, enough blathering about reptiles and salt sheds. I started shooting once the first star appeared to the west, looking towards the glow of Sacramento. Pretty soon, I could make out the Milky Way, and soon after, it was dark enough to make out what appeared to be a bright section, possibly the core. As the sky became completely dark, by 9:45, the sky was beautiful – I did see a few meteors, but I think the Perseids was to the North, and I was focused more on the Milky Way as it moved from SE to SW across the horizon. I did snap a few star photos to the North for the fun of it – the Big Dipper was really clear. I also saw some Starlink satellites pass by to the North as well – never seen them before.

    A red Subaru Forester parked on a gravel surface at night, with a blue folding chair beside it and a camera mounted on a tripod.
    A dark night scene featuring silhouettes of tall trees against a starry sky, with a faint light illuminating a small rectangular object.

    The chair came in handy in the dark – once I turned off my head lamp, the only light was from the camera screen. Kind of creepy.

    I shot around 60 photos, a low record for me, experimenting with various setting on the camera. Something I never had a chance to during the Arches workshop. I also just sat back in my camp rocking chair and stared at the sky a lot. Very relaxing, and incredibly quiet. It was cool enough to wear a down sweater, so there were no mosquitoes. Or snakes. Or bears. About 11:15, the Milky Way was fading as it neared the glow in the West from Sacramento, so I decided to start the drive home. There were quite a few cars parked at the main observation point – I think I made the right choice. 

    And finally, here’s the best of the batch – it takes a while to edit them. I may add a few more. My expectations had been pretty low for this outing, so I’m not too disappointed in the results. It was good practice, and I enjoyed sitting out in the dark, watching the Milky Way slide by – beats sitting at home alone watching TV.

    Starry night sky with the Milky Way visible above a silhouette of trees.
    Best of the batch – there’s a meteor track in the middle of the Milky Way

    I get one more shot at night photography in September, when I meet some friends at Yosemite Park. I’m getting there a day before my friends, which happens to be the new moon. I intend to head up to Glacier Point, which I believe is one of the best places for night photography. We are staying close to the tunnel view, so I might be able to try that one out as well.

    Two more weeks and I’ll be in Kodiak Alaska. I’d better get back to training. I have to be faster than one person in the group.

    Peace.