Death Valley Dark Skies
Half the Park is After Dark
Death Valley National Park Map
When I bought my new camera, one of the things I was interested in trying was astrophotography. We bought the Sony Alpha 7C partly because it has outstanding sensor and image stabilization capabilities. I did some research on lens types, talked to people in a couple of camera stores, and eventually settled on a Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG DN Art prime lens. A prime lens in photography usually means a lens with a fixed focal length, not the main lens on the camera. The wide aperture paired with the sensitive camera sensor make for a very good duo for this type of photography, although astrophotography can be done with many lens types.
We finally managed to snag an actual campsite in the Mesquite Springs Campground in the North end of the park on our third night. Death Valley was designated an International Dark Skies Park with a Gold Tier rating in 2013. According to the National Park Service website, “To qualify for the dark sky designation, the park improved exterior lighting at facilities in the Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells areas, reducing energy consumption, sky glow, and glare. The designation requires the park to maintain its efforts to protect night sky resources and provide visitor education on dark skies.” The only real light pollution in the park interior comes from Las Vegas.
I have actually tried astrophotography before when we were in Badlands National Park back in October of 2022 (Badlands is nominated for the International Dark Skies Park designation, but they need to improve the lighting in and around the park first), but the moon was up and too bright, and while it lit up the landscape nicely, it wasn’t great for star photography. Luckily, while we were in Death Valley, it was a waning crescent and the skies happened to be clear this night.
But first I wanted to try time lapse photography, so I set up the camera on my tripod to photograph the sun going down behind the van.
https://videopress.com/v/zkY5ScEg?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
All photos taken with the Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG DN Art lens (ISO 100, f/14, 1/125s)
42 photos taken 30 seconds apart - 21 minutes total
I then turned the camera around to photograph the shadow moving up the Grapvine Mountains. The wide angle lens was, well, too wide angle, and the mountains looked REALLY far away, so I ran back to the van and quickly switched to my Tamron 70-300mm lens.
https://videopress.com/v/dIuZSoPo?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
All photos taken with my Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.4 lens (ISO 100, 141mm, f/5, 1/250s)
57 photos taken 30 seconds apart - 29 minutes total
I was able to edit the photos in Lightroom and then export them to iPhotos and put them together in a little free app called iMotion. Next time I think I will try 20 seconds apart so it is a little less jerky. Also, the top one is being played back at more frames per second, so it looks a bit smoother.
Before it got dark, I set up the tripod and left it there. Once it’s dark, it is much harder to figure out how to get what you want in the frame. We then got in the van, had dinner and waited for it to get dark. The camera settings were all manual - I used recommended “start with” settings from one of my classes.
My first try. This was taken at 7:15 pm. We have an LED strip in the van that was set on a purplish color and Bob was in the van reading. There are a lot of people moving around the campground with flashlights, and the long wavy line was a guy with a headlamp walking across during the 25 second exposure. (ISO 3200 f/1.8 25s)
I realized that if I wanted to get more of the Milky Way in the frame, I should probably turn the camera on its side and shoot in a vertical orientation rather than a horizontal one.
Bob sauntered around from the far side of the van just after I triggered the shutter. I yelled, “Hey! You’re in my shot!” He froze for a second like a deer caught in headlights and then jumped out of the frame. I like how it turned out, although the purple light in the van was WAY too bright
I think this was the only photo I took that caught a meteor. Two, actually, if you look closely, although one is almost invisible. You can see Cassiopeia right above and to the left of Bob’s head. I could not figure out what the large bright almost blurry object directly above the van was. There were no planets visible at this time. A star cluster, maybe? I took several more photos of the Milky Way and the van, and then Bob suggested I turn the camera around and photograph the Milky Way from the opposite direction. We also experimented with various shutter speeds. At some point I realized that I had accidentally bumped my aperture setting on the lens and it was set at f/1.8 rather than f/1.4. Not much of a difference, luckily. The following is a slideshow of some of the photos:
1) ISO 3200 f/1.4 15s
2) ISO 3200 f/1.8 25s
3) ISO 3200 f/1.4 10s
4) ISO 3200 f/1.4 15s
5) ISO 3200 F/1.4 15s
I didn’t like the way the words pretty much covered the bottom of the photo, so the captions are below:
We finally turned the light off in the van. By 8:20 many of the campground campfires had died down. The camera is picking up the our neighbor’s campfire reflected off the van
The hills were lit up by several campfires in this 25 second exposure. We could only see them as dark silhouettes, but the camera sensor picked up the light. It was fairly windy, so the bush in the photo is blurry. You can see Orion just down from the upper right corner.
I moved the camera over to avoid the moving bush and to try to get Orion more into the photo. Ten seconds was not enough to pick up any light reflected off the hills
The hills were “painted” by someone with a flashlight while I was taking the photo. I think the yellowish light is from Las Vegas. We couldn’t see it at all - apart from the stars, the sky was completely black - but the camera sensor picked it up
I decided to try and photograph Ursa Major, which happened to be almost directly above our neighbors very bright campfire. It is in a vertical orientation if you have trouble picking it out.
The photos still have the dark bar across the bottom, but it’s slightly better.
I liked this one of the Milky Way and Orion the best with the camera picking up the hills illuminated by a campfire. The really bright star in the Milky Way is Sirius (ISO 3200 f/1.4 15s)
I found out after we drove out of the park and I had internet service again that the galactic center of the Milky Way had been visible on this date between 3AM and sunrise. On a clear night, the galactic center can be spectacular. Unfortunately I was fast asleep. Next time!