The Traveling Widower

Tag: astrophotography

  • Solo Traveling Again

    A photographer standing on rocky terrain at night, capturing the Milky Way, surrounded by coyotes with glowing eyes and a mountain lion in the background.

    April 20th, 2026

    Monday was my first “free” day since I arrived in Moab last Wednesday. The workshop ended on Sunday evening, and the entire group was heading home in the morning, leaving me with two full days before I left Moab. The Sunday photo session ended relatively early (2:00AM), so I was able to get some sleep, and even made it to the hotel breakfast for a change. Not that the breakfast was worth waking up for – my only complaint with this hotel. I decided to just take it easy in the morning – work on photos, do some laundry, just relax a bit, before heading off to the park. I really wanted to do some hiking and see the park in daylight, but also did not want to kill myself either. I was worn out, and still wanted to do one more Milky Way shoot that night – the weather was supposed to be perfect. And I’m a glutton for punishment. Always have been and probably always will.

    I headed out to the park around noon, and planned to check out the very far end of the main road – I also wanted to visit the location for my solo shoot that evening (Sand Dune Arch) which I had been to only once, in the dark, and had never ventured out of the parking lot. After that, I wanted to see two other arches which required some hiking – Skyline and Landscape.

    The park was relatively empty compared to the weekend – I guess everyone clears out on Sunday, and the crowds grow towards the weekend with traffic from Colorado and Utah. I really enjoyed just driving through the park without rushing, stopping at some pullouts to just enjoy the fantastic scenery.  The Park Avenue trail, which I had ventured out into my first night  in Moab, is beautiful as are the pullouts for the Courthouse Towers. I decided to hold off taking photos until the next day. Never a good idea. Carpe diem, so they say.

    I eventually made it to the Sand Dune Arch parking lot, which was packed. The trail to the arch starts a short distance from the parking lot,  and runs through a narrow slot canyon between two huge fins of rock. Most of the trail is like a nice, sandy beach so of course there were gobs of families, with kids playing in the sand. Fun to watch. The arch is rather small, and easy to miss, except for all the people doing selfies. I made note of where I wanted to set up my tripod that night, near the base of that trail so I could get the view of the sky with the big fin rocks as a foreground. I should have noticed one important feature though, and planned out in more detail the best placement for my tripod – more on that later. Hint – it’s much easier to scope out a site in daylight than in the dark.

    A landscape featuring tall red rock formations against a clear blue sky, with sparse vegetation and sandy ground in the foreground.
    Narrow canyon with tall red rock walls and sandy ground, featuring a large boulder and green vegetation under a clear blue sky.
    Red rock formations under a clear blue sky with sparse vegetation in the foreground.
    A scenic view of red rock formations in a narrow canyon, featuring a natural arch and soft sandy ground under bright blue skies.

    My next stop was the Skyline Arch, also a bit crowded though I think the rocky trail turned some of the less agile visitors away. This was a good confidence builder for me – I was really having balance issues walking around in the dark all week. It was much easier hiking during the day,  not lugging a tripod in one hand, one hiking stick in the other, and trying to stay upright without being able to see much in front of me with just a glow from my red headlamp. I had little if any difficulty negotiating this trail. And the arch was quite nice.

    A natural rock arch formed in red sandstone, surrounded by desert vegetation and clear blue skies.
    Scenic view of red rock formations under a clear blue sky, with desert vegetation in the foreground.

    My final stop for the day was at the end of the road – the Devils Garden, which has the trailhead for the longest arch in the park, Landscape Arch (plus quite a few others). The campground and picnic areas are located there as well. The trail was only 3 miles round trip, but I wore my camera backpack anyway,to hold water and a snack. I looked like a serious hiker. The trail was packed gravel the entire way, easy walking, but also had a couple of relatively steep hills to climb – a good workout and test for my cardiac issues. No problemo! Like most of the older hikers on the trail, I did take some breathers (or pulse reduction breaks) at the top of each hill, but I still made pretty good time getting to the arch. I’d grade that one a ‘Meh’. Not that exciting. But it was a nice hike, a good workout with some great views so I’m glad I did it.

    A desert landscape featuring red rock formations, scattered shrubs, and a fallen log in the foreground under a clear blue sky.
    A person wearing sunglasses and a yellow cap stands in front of reddish rock formations in a desert landscape under a clear blue sky.
    Scenic view of red rock formations under a blue sky with scattered clouds.
    A scenic view of a natural stone arch nestled between rugged red rock formations, with sparse vegetation in the foreground against a clear blue sky.

    Since I was planning another late night outing, I headed back to the hotel to relax after this hike, maybe take a dip in the pool/spa, and have some dinner. The PhotoPills application (I’ll discuss in another post) indicated that the Milky Way would peak over the Sand Dune Arch fins around 3AM, so I intended to take a long nap before leaving for the park again.

    Alone in the dark

    It was a bit strange driving through the park at 11:30PM by myself after four nights of being with a group. It was even stranger finding a place to set up my tripod on my own, and then standing there in a very dark,  isolated spot – there was not much road traffic at all. I could keep my headlight on if I wanted since there was nobody else around, but it was still a little scary. But, the weather was warm, and the sky was perfectly clear so I just focused on setting up my camera, and tried not to think about mountain lions, coyotes, or other wild creature wandering around in the dark. I had a lot of time to kill, so I went back to the car for a while to listen to the radio, and snooze for a bit. I really missed having people to talk to. After an hour, I headed back to my tripod to start taking photos.

    Just about the time the MW had “moved” (the earth is moving not the Milky Way) over the rock formation, a horde of cars pulled into the parking lot, and a large group started working their way towards me – this was another astrophotography workshop, likely the same ones that hogged the site the other night. Fortunately, they just passed me by without saying a word, and set up out of sight further down the trail. Not a very friendly group. The trip lead did make some comment that I was in a lousy spot. 

    Regardless of his comment, I continued shooting for another  hour or so, checking every 5 minutes to view the relationship of the MW to the rock formation – it changes very quickly, and I wanted to make sure I got the core of the Milky Way in a few of the shots. I did notice by accident though, that there was a problem where I had decided to place my tripod. I was pretty much right next to the trail sign. Hard to see that in the dark – that’s where I should have been more careful in my daytime preparation. I checked the next day, and the sign does show up in the foreground as a rectangular outline. Not everyone will notice that, but I’m sure a competition judge will. My bad.

    After a few hours of standing pretty much in the same place, I packed up the tripod and very carefully walked back down the trail to the parking lot – I was nice enough to use the dim red light so as not to impact the other group. I shot a couple of more photos from the parking lot (see below), loaded up the car, and pulled out of the lot with my dims on…it was the right thing to do.

    So that was the official end of my introduction to astrophotography – I have a lot of photos to process now, and that will keep me busy at home for a while. I’ll do a trip summary post once I have a few images worth sharing (I included two below – first attempts).

    Peace.

    Night sky filled with stars and the Milky Way over towering rock formations.
    A night sky filled with stars above jagged rock formations, showcasing the Milky Way galaxy.

  • Astrophotography – It’s Dark Out There!

    A photographer standing in a snowy landscape at night, capturing the Milky Way above a rock arch formation, with icicles hanging from his camera lens.
    I wish I had that coat on this trip

    April 18th, 2026

    Yesterday was my first real introduction to the world of astrophotography. Maybe I get a badge for that. My first impressions were:

    • The night sky is amazing in places like Arches National Park
    • It’s very dark out there
    • It can also be freezing cold
    • You spend most of your time standing around waiting for stars to move around
    • The technology is complicated, and you have to chanage a lot of things in the dark with numb fingers.
    • And..you have to take on vampire hours.

    The plan for the evening was for a very long one, starting with sunset photos and then moving around to different locations to try out creating star trails, and then photograph the Milky Way as it rises above the horizen. We would be out from 6:30PM to 5:30AM. Yawn.

    The sunset stop was at the Windows Arches area, which I had been to the day before when the weather was windy and cloudy. This time, it conditions were perfect, and the images have much more color and depth to them

    Sunset view of arches in a desert landscape, showcasing vibrant red rock formations and sparse vegetation.
    A scenic view of a red rock formation with a natural arch at sunset, showcasing the vibrant colors of the rock and the clear sky.
    A scenic view of tall red rock formations against a clear blue sky, surrounded by sparse vegetation.
    Landscape featuring red rock formations, sparse vegetation, and a bare tree at sunset in a desert environment.

    Once the sun had set, we headed over to the first stop of the night, further down the road at the Sand Dunes Arch area where would try our hand at star trails – this where you create one of those cool images of a whorl of stars, by creating interval photos focused on the same point. You then use specialized software to stack the images together.

    By this time, it was absolutely pitch black – the red light headlamps give you just enough light to navigate easy trails and parking lots and fortunately, we were shooting from the parking lot. It was getting very cold by now, and the setup for shooting the trails takes quite a while, doing test shots and tweaking settings. I had mine perfect, and when the trip lead said go ahead and start, I depressed the shutter, closed off the view screen to conserve battery strength, and headed carefully over to the car to stay warm. Someone called out to me to question whether my camera was working since everyone else left their views screens open, but I was sure it was OK. I huddled in the car for an hour, noticing a big flash as a meteor fireball passed overhead…big deal, I’ve got it on camera. After an hour, it was time to go so I ventured out carefully to retrieve my gear, and quickly check to see if I had caught the meteor. Well not only did I not have that, but I had nothing but the very first picture. There should have been 500. So much for all the preparation. I figured out what happened later that evening – I have a remote shutter control, which I kept in my pocket. When I reached for the car keys I probably pressed the shutter release, which terminated the process. Oh well, maybe next time.

    We made two more stop afer that, with the temperature dropping rapidly to freezing. By the time we reached the second one, which I had been to when I first arrived in Moab, my legs and hands were numb, and my baloance was way off. We wound up on a dark, rocky trail, setting up on a curved rock with lots of smaller rocks all over the place. Someone was bound to fall. Fortunately it was not me, but the person who did trip and fall did some damage – tore up her hand and had a huge bruise on her head. We had someone with a first aide kit who helped to patch her up, and she was OK a bit later, but it turned out she did have a concussion. I’m going to be even more careful the rest of the trip.

    I got some nice photos at the last stop, and decided I had enough and returned to the hotel around 4AM, while the rest of the group went on to the last stop. I was cold and exhausted. I slept until close to noon. Ready for the next outing.

    I did capture a few good shots, including a few with the Milky Way – I need to do much more processing with Adobe Lightroom before I post most of them.

    Silhouette of large rock formations under a starry night sky with the Milky Way visible in the background.
    A dramatic night sky filled with stars above illuminated rock formations.

    The trip lead gave a presentation on Lightroom Classic this afternoon, using my Milky Way photo for the demonstration – amazing software. This is what he came up with – I hope to be able to replicate that.

    A silhouette of rock formations against a starry night sky, featuring the Milky Way galaxy prominently.
    Edited version of my photo. I hope to duplicate those edits

    Peace