the milky way rising in Big Bend National Park

[moonshinegnomie]

went to my favorite place in texas ,Big Bend National Park. I go in summer despite it being 110+ in the desert to shoot the milky way.

[Deuxcents]

1. So worth the trip if it was half as stunning in person as your photo is for us. Just wow 🤩

[moonshinegnomie]

4. my wife laughs at me sometimes for doing it

in her words , lets see, your going to drive 500 miles to someplace literally in the middle of nowhere, in the desert whens its 110 degrees out to take pictures???
no thanks,ill stay home.

I try and go every year but missed the last 2 years. theya re supposed to be doing a major reconstruction that will close part of teh park for 2 years starting soon so this was my last chance for a while to ger been ther et to part of the park.



If you've never been there the park is amazing. when i say its in the midlel of nowhere i mean nowhere. the nearest town with over 300 people or so is about 100 miles away. the nearest wal mart is over 3 hours.
at the rio grande its 110+ degrees starting in may. at chiso basin its 20 degrees cooler since its so much higher in elevation. (over a mile high,3k feet higher than the river).

Big Bend has the darkest skies in the continental US. The milky way is unmistakable in the night sky its so bright.

[JMCKUSICK]

2. Capturing a perfect silhouette as you did here

Is hard and stunning.
This photo gets better every time I look at it.
Thank you moonshinegnomie.

[LuckyLib]

3. Thank you. I needed to see this. Made my day.

[MLAA]

5. Stunning!

[irisblue]

6. My words are not enough

[RamblingRose]

7. Is the border crossing still open in the Park? We loved taking the row boat across to Boquillas.

We went in June 2018 & I got a "Make Boquillas Great Again" shirt.

[moonshinegnomie]

12. yes it is

i didnt cross because its only open a coupl edays a week in summer and i didnt have a chance to get there on an open day

[Grim Chieftain]

8. So beautiful

In these bleak, bleak times it's good to know there is still beauty if you know where to look. Thanks for posting this.

[AllaN01Bear]

9. ooh. ahhh.

[Jay25]

10. Very beautiful!

Thank you.

[George McGovern]

11. Simply Awesome moonshinegnomie!! "Simply" but I know acquiring this image was anything but. Thanks!

[markodochartaigh]

13. "Starry Night Over the Temple in the Desert"

It reminds me of van Gogh.

[crimycarny]

14. What settings did you use?

I've been trying to get photos of the stars at night and I can't seem to get the settings right. Beautiful photo.

I lost my son a little over 3 years ago. I had a dream about a year after he died, where he came to me and said, "I want to show you something". In my dream, we drove to a place, at night, where you could see the stars. He showed me a beautiful galaxy. I remember the colors were blue, pink, purple--just amazingly beautiful. My son told me the name of the galaxy, but I couldn't remember the name when I woke up.

A couple of days later, I ran across a Twitter post from a Lakota Native American that I follow. The post described how Lakota believe that the stars give a spirit to a person at birth, and that spirit stays with them during their life on earth. The star assigned at birth is called a Wanagi. When a person passes, their spirit travels back to their home through the Milky Way.

I've wondered if that dream was my son trying to show me he was ok, and show me where he is now. The galaxy is my dream was indescribably beautiful, and I had never envisioned a galaxy as having different colors until my son showed me in my dream.

Anyway, I've been trying to get photos of the stars ever since, driving to areas where it's dark and you can actually see them. But I can't seem to get the settings right.

[Deuxcents]

15. Your post is beautiful and tugged at my heart.

Last night, there was part 2 of a 2 part series about the West and last night was about Sitting Bull, the beloved Lakota warrior and leader. He had a dream when he was young and he was, for the rest of his life, guided by that experience and never lost sight of it. Your post is timely and I, too, have beliefs that we are all a part of the universe..we are made of the same elements as the stars. I sincerely hope your sweet dreams give you peace as you search for that special place you’re looking for 🌺

[crimycarny]

18. When my son first passed I would go outside every night and just look up at the stars

I singled one star out, I'm not sure why, and as I gazed up at it I'd talk to my son. At that point, I had never heard of the Lakota beliefs about the stars and spirits, as well as the Milky Way being the galaxy spirits passed through.

I also had no idea that many galaxies had different colors, though in my dream they did. I remember gasping at the beauty of the galaxy as I was standing by my son, who was so calm and at peace (in life he was filled with anxiety and so hard on himself.) I remember waking up and wondering why my son would show me this galaxy. We'd neither been into astronomy previously. Why did he show me this?

Then I stumbled across the posting about the Lakota's belief, just days after that dream, it all made sense.

[moonshinegnomie]

16. settings are highly dependednt on where your shooting from

big bend has the darkest skies in the US so i can maximize exposure time without wooring about light pollution.
a general guide is take 500/the focal length of your lens and thats the maximum you can shoot without star trails.

use the highest ISO your comfortable using with your camera and teh fastest lens you have wide open
I use ISO 3200 or 6400 on my camera at f4

[crimycarny]

17. Thank you!

I realize that it's tricky because the lighting in certain locations can be so different (too much ambient light, or really dark, etc).

I'm going to keep experimenting, thank you so much!

[George McGovern]

19. Agreed moonshinegnomie. Those settings work well with my Olympus, Thanks!