January Milky Way from Sun Valley, ID Dark Sky
Photo by Matthew Ryno
Scope / Lens
Sigma 30mm 1:1.4 DC HSM (Art)
Camera
Nikon D5600
Exposure
30" Exposures x32 frams - total integration of 16 minutes.
Processing
Soft/Proc: Hardware: Arsenal Intelligent Camera AssistantSoftware: Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP) | DxO Image Science DxO PhotoLab | Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight | Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator | Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator
Other
Processing with Astro Pixel Processor to integrate and do initial stretch and .tif file processing, with further post processing via Pix Insight tools, including BlurXTerminator and NoiseXterminator.
Date
Jan. 4, 2024
Description
Enjoyed a beautiful trip out to Sun Valley, Idaho to visit family and enjoy a Bortle 3 portion of the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve, which is the first dark sky preserve in the USA. The SQM meter reading was about 21.4, amidst some clouds coming in, so it's likely my location was usually a Bortle 2 but was measured at a time when clouds were encroaching.Travel across Galena Pass in winter to the darkest portions of the dark sky preserve is prohibitive or at least no adviseable out of precaution, so instead I took this picture about 17 miles north of Sun Valley, Idaho in a place called Frostbite Flats, as midnight cross country skiers were wrapping up for the night and heading home. The difference of a dark sky is noticeable in how clouds appear in the sky, as black blotches of nothingness with tinges of brown, with nothing to reflect the city light pollution.
Unfortunately I did not hear any owls, or too much wildlife at this time of the year. I took advantage of a worrying decrease in snowfall this year, making it very easy to easily drive on out and set up a camera with a star tracker and two other telescopes.
ID: 1530