Greetings from Old Faithful

[FlaviusYNP]

Greetings, I'm Rob, a.k.a. Flavius. 

I'm currently fortunate enough to live at Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park, year-round.

When I returned to work in The Park a couple years ago, I promised myself I'd finally get into photography the way I've always wanted to. Yellowstone offers myriad photography challenges from macro to Birds in Flight to DSO, there are great subjects at every level. I got some good wildlife shots my first year, and still throw the tele gear in if I'll be driving through The Park - you never know. But I never really got the wildlife bug. If they show, great, but I'm definitely not going looking for Grizz. There have been at least a couple bad incidents locally in the last decade of so.

While I leave animals to chance, their home is stunning in itself. So I added a wide angle lens. And then I remembered wanting to recreate phots I'd seen under moonlight that looked like daylight - except for the telltale stars.
I came back with the Artist Point Landscape, attached. Yellowstone has such lush terrain, it seems a crime to ignore it to stare up at the same view everyone has everywhere... Sort of. The airglow can be wicked in summer, often naked-eye visible. I'm watching for the next dip of the Aurora this far South when the moon isn't turning night to day.

The I tried the Milky way, basic long exposure on tripod. Fumbled with settings and focus and stuff. But when it I zoomed-in on the first good shot....Oh my God, it's Full of Stars. Of course the clear ky helps. When I looked into it, I realized that Yellowstone does NOT share the same view everyone has.  Old Faithful's typically Bortle 2,  but a quick drive over the divide leads to one of the last pits of true darkness in USA. Bortle 0 is possible. As it sank in what a treasure pile I sit under, The Astro Bug was foretold. Suddenly I find myself with depleted resources, A pair of Star Adventurer 2is, an Esprit 120 triplet, an AZ-EQ6 mount with Synscan, and a second DSLR - one of Spencer's astro-modded 60Ds. NO dedicated astro camera, NO guiding, just an obsession with Polar Alignment and Image Focus.

A few of the ones I like are attached. I get that this is essentially a sky object group, as you might expect from a telescope shop. Are Night Landscapes discouraged, even if the top half is chock-fulla stars?

I'll share that motivation can be hit or miss. Astro, like Yellowstone herself, isn't approached ligthly. Everyone has to meet the Polar Alignment guardian at the astro gate. It's hard enough in your backyard. It ranged between 12 and 17F my last night out. It hit 6F one time. My hands inevitably crap-out unless think to use chemical warmers from the start. I like to shoot in the geyser basins - great for Night Landscape, but the geysers literally dump clouds (and often boiling water) directly out of the ground. The lay of the land always seems to route the fog intermittently in front of Polaris. If I can catch PA on a 2i, II call myself lucky. And if not...I'll come home with SOMETHING. I tried landscape mode tracking of Orion a couple night ago when Polaris was being extra-Puckish. It kept the constellation from running away, and the full moon out of the frame. It was partly cloudy anyhoo, the effect was nice in timelapse. Of course the big animals are still everywhere, you just can't see them as well. Bison tend to sleep, but they wander about some, too.  I'll usually see and almost always hear coyotes in the basins, wolves and grizzlies are entirely within the realm of possible. When a stick snaps in the woods it's hard to keep focus on the glory above.

These are in front of my "house," tracked exposures:

The thermal basins are a close lure, but any serious Astro-only is better conducted on the dark side of the hill. My first try with the Esprit 120 yielded a single exposure of - yup the Orion Nebula - attached, from Lake Butte, in the black zone. I really need an Astro-buddy. Or at least a wagon. The scope has to be car-based, of course, but I'll pack 2 cams, 3 lenses, a tripod AND tracker and gimp along as best I can. Just having someone shine the red light down the polar hole would save some angst. I feel like exposure and focus are getting under control, now it's resource management and refining my post-skills. There's meant to be nothing realistic about my Landscapes - we're peering into a hidden world only our eyes keep us from seeing. Who knows how an owl or coyote sees the night? To me, the subjectivity extracted in Post is a big part of the magic. All the obsession of guide scope variance, stacking, stretching, more effort toward "objective" post-processing... I'm seeing a cooking/baking dichotomy. Y'all are bakers, precision and consistency are essential to good outcome. I might be too much of a cook for Astro, we'll see.

 

 

Lake Butte, after the moon set 120 Triplet:

 

 

Thanks for letting me in!

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by FlaviusYNP

[Marvin Jenkins]

Welcome aboard 

[Nicola Fletcher]

Welcome to SGL and thank you for posting these fabulous photos of the incredible place you live!

Im from Ireland and primarily a visual observer. Like you, my ‘resources are depleted’ but I have some lovely telescopes to view the night sky from the mountain farm where I live.

I’ve tried to get into wide field astrophotography after a trip to Finland earlier in the year where I was lucky enough to see a fantastic display of Northern Lights. But I don’t think photography will ever beat my love of just observing the objects in the night sky.

 

[SwiMatt]

Such beautiful pictures and interesting opportunities you have!

Welcome to SGL

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[bosun21]

Hi there, and a warm welcome to SGL.

[Floater]

Wow! Stunning images, Rob. Thank you.

Welcome to the forum. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[lunator]

Welcome to SGL.

Lovely images.🙂 I have just moved to Bortle 4 skies and I after looking at your pics I still have dark sky envy 😁.

Cheers

Ian

[Swoop1]

Welcome aboard @FlaviusYNP

Beautiful images. I do really like the landscape/ skyscape images.

I guess I don't have to tell you how lucky you are to live where you do. We spent a few days in Yellowstone a couple of years ago, just before the park closed for the winter. One of the worlds spectacular settings.

 

[saac]

Those landscape images are lovely, welcome to the forum. 

Jim 

[dweller25]

That’s a good start @FlaviusYNP 🤣, welcome to SGL 🙂

[Sunshine]

What an intro! with some stunning images of the magnificent place you call home. And do stear clear of those grizzly bears! they can ruin your day, quickly.
 

Jealousy overload! welcome to SGL

Edited December 3, 2023 by Sunshine

[Chandra]

Fantastic pics!!! How envious of dark skies... You are privileged... As we can see, astrophotography no longer has many secrets for you. Congratulations and welcome to this community.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @FlaviusYNP and welcome to SGL. 

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL and great pictures. 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂