Life at 10,000ft in the Eastern Sierra

[Ryan10]

This is at Lone Pine Lake on the Mt. Whitney trail. The elevation is right at 10,000 feet. I was backpacking there with my brother and friend in June.

Lone Pine Lake by Ryan Luna, on Flickr

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ryan,

Pretty nice here. It can be hard when processing to keep a night time image really truly looking like night. But you did it here. This really looks like it's night! And it looks like there are a billion stars in the night. It's awesome when it's that dark.

Jim

PS. And I will mention it before someone else does, but it's Eastern Sierra, there is only one of them. It's hard because in general we refer to like the Rocky Mountains, plural, but not with the Eastern Sierra.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Really cool image. Makes me want to just sit and watch stars.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nicely handled Ryan - the stars are delightful.

The link doesn't seem to open when I click on the image.

 

[Ryan10]

Nicely handled Ryan - the stars are delightful.

The link doesn't seem to open when I click on the image.

Thank you. That's weird, I'm clicking on both the picture and the hyperlink and both open to Flickr for me. Are you at work or somewhere that may be blocking Flickr?

 

[Ryan10]

Hey Ryan,

Pretty nice here. It can be hard when processing to keep a night time image really truly looking like night. But you did it here. This really looks like it's night! And it looks like there are a billion stars in the night. It's awesome when it's that dark.

Jim

PS. And I will mention it before someone else does, but it's Eastern Sierra, there is only one of them. It's hard because in general we refer to like the Rocky Mountains, plural, but not with the Eastern Sierra.

Thanks Jim. This is the first time I used my iOptron. I think I exposed for nearly 2 mins on the stars but at ISO 800 and F/3.2 or something like that with my Rokinon 24mm F/1.4, so there is a ton of detail on the full resolution night image.

Thanks for the clarity on the "Sierra" nomenclature. I'll be sure to not sound like a noob going forward.

 

[Ryan10]

Really cool image. Makes me want to just sit and watch stars.

Thank you Kyle. Looking at the stars in the night sky at 10K feet in the Eastern Sierra is definitely different than looking at them at Joshua Tree, where I normally do astro work. In this view, there is really no city of any size causing light pollution. The closest city would be Salt Lake, about 400 miles away, so you don't get any of the horizon glow.

 

[Ryan10]

Here are a couple of daytime looks from the same spot on that trip.

Lone Pine Lake by Ryan Luna, on Flickr



Admittedly, I probably "dodged" the rocks on the right a bit too much here. I'm not sure the name of the mountain range across Owens Valley, but you can barely see them in this picture.

Lone Pine Lake Shore by Ryan Luna, on Flickr

 

[Ryan10]

And a cell phone panorama looking back from that rock on the other side of the lake. We were setup just within the trees.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Lovely shots. That first night shot is very well done.

 

[Ryan10]

Lovely shots. That first night shot is very well done.

Thanks Ben.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks Jim. This is the first time I used my iOptron. I think I exposed for nearly 2 mins on the stars but at ISO 800 and F/3.2 or something like that with my Rokinon 24mm F/1.4, so there is a ton of detail on the full resolution night image.

Thanks for the clarity on the "Sierra" nomenclature. I'll be sure to not sound like a noob going forward.

Well... actually having a volunteer noob is handy. It does give us someone to pick on. So don't be too quick to lose that noob feeling.

Jim

 

[Ryan10]

 

[Timmeh]

Hi Ryan,

I like the location of Andromeda within the frame. It provides some novel interest outside of the usual Milky Way core. Looking at this I'm already looking forward to my next backpacking trip in June next year.

Tim