May 23rd, cabin fever has been getting the best of me. I spent that Saturday, going through all my notes, looking for something that might be interesting. Nothing but clear skies so not feeling the landscape stuff, and I was getting a little burned out going to the downtown area. I just needed a change in scenery. I looked at the moon app, and we had a new Moon that night. I have not shot a single Milky Way photo so far this year. What I am going to shoot was decided it just a matter of figuring out where.

May is my favorite time of year to shoot the Milky Way. Weather is warming up, and the Milky Way is up at a “reasonable” hour. March, you need to be up and shooting at 3-4 am and who’s got time for that? Late May, the Milky Way is above the horizon at 11 pm. Heat equals noise, so the lower overnight temps help with sensor heat soak. Also, living in the west, forest fires are a thing, so it can be challenging shooting late in the season. I was looking through darksitefinder for locations. I needed a place with an interesting foreground, but I didn’t want to drive too far from home. I settled on Cathedral Gorge State Park. It’s not as dark as I would like due to the light pollution from Panaca, but you’re inside of a small valley, and the canyon walls do a great job blocking some of the light pollution. I have shot at this location before, so I am familiar with compositions and locations. I just wanted to try new settings and new tools.

I made the 2 1/2 drive and arrived around 10 pm. It was am add feeling showing up because even though I wasn’t out in the middle of nowhere, there were no campers, and I truly had the park all to myself. This time I wanted to keep things simple. Camera, 14-24mm ƒ/2.8, and an intervalometer. No tracker, no dark frames, nothing fancy. The plan was to take a block of 15 images and stack them. I settled on the water tower mainly because its right next to the road. The bathroom light from the campground across the valley does an excellent job of lightning up the scene. I used a single F&V HDV-Z96 Led Panel with a warming filter to light the water tower. Once I got everything in place and camera ready, just hit start on the remote and let the camera do the work.

After about 30 minutes of shooting, two more cars pulled up. Some additional photographers from Vegas made the trip. Honesty, it was good to have some folks around. The sound of coyotes yipping and moving around you can be unnerving at times. It was good to chat with some other people. I was missing that human contact but still kept 6 feet apart. Once it was midnight, it was time to pack up and make the 2 1/2 hr drive back home. I made a quick stop at the extraterrestrial highway sign. I was exhausted, but I was feeling better. Trying to find the new normal, but found some comfort in knowing somethings won't change.