There is something ineffable about looking up at stars. This must be partly why God references the stars in his great promise to Abraham.
I had an amazing, even spiritual experience shooting the Perseid meteor shower a couple nights ago. I was already planning to be out in West Virginia for a Father / Daughter camp on Sunday night, which happened to be the peak of the Perseids. I packed my camera, fast wide lens, and tripod and planned to stay out late for a photography session. The peak was scheduled to be around midnight, just after the moon set. I set up my camera to start shooting around 11pm. I wanted to try to get something interesting in the foreground, and there wasn’t much to work with in the field I was shooting from except an old cross. I started shooting a series of photos there, using 5 second exposure, f1.4, ISO 1600. I let it run a while and enjoyed the sky from various vantage points. I was seeing a few shooting stars, but not as many as I expected. After an hour I decided my framing with the cross didn’t include enough of the sky, especially around Perseus. Around midnight I shifted the camera to the center of the field to get more of the sky. At this point I looked through a few recent shots and noticed a red glow near the horizon and worried it was light pollution or brake lights ruining the shot. But after further consideration, I recalled reading that northern lights might be visible this weekend further south than usual, and they appear red rather than green in southern latitudes, and camera sensors will capture it even if it’s not visible to the eye. I realized it was probably aurora borealis, and this might end up being a great photography session. I moved my camera to the middle of the field and experimented with horizontal and vertical framing. I normally prefer landscape, but you can see more of the milky way in the vertical framing. I continued capturing images continuously for another hour while admiring the beauty and contemplating time, the universe, God, and humanity for another hour. I kept the camera going until about 1am. The aurora was fading, and I needed some sleep before a busy day at camp.
Perseids meteor shower coincided with a rare southern aurora borealis. Captured from the field at Camp Hemlock. I can't think of a better way to kick off a Dad & Daughter camp.
