The night sky was once a shared heritage, common to every landscape and every people. But in the short time since the electric light bulb was invented, dark skies have been quickly disappearing from view. Today, a growing number of visitors are coming to national parks like Arches and Canyonlands specifically to experience the wonders of the night sky.

In August 2015, the International Dark-Sky Association designated Canyonlands as an International Dark Sky Park. This designation not only requires the park to preserve this precious resource but also to draw attention to its fragility. To be a truly “dark sky” one must be at least 200 miles from any significant light source like a town or city. By the way, it is said that for every electric light bulb illuminated, 12 stars “disappear” from visibility.

As we mentioned on our first posting of the Milky Way, the sky was too bright (both from the moon and the lights of Flagstaff). While we obtained a few marginally acceptable photographs, we greatly anticipated shooting the Milky Way when we arrived at Arches National Park. As before, we set our alarm for 2:30a so we could obtain the most favorable positioning of the Milky Way and its galactic center.

This time we achieved success. The moon was far below the horizon so it was quite dark. We were disappointed to notice some light on the southern horizon from the city of Moab. However, as you will see from the photographs, it did not have too much of a negative effect.

The Milky Way (and its galactic center) in all its glory. The bright star to its upper right is Vega. This view is taken with the camera pointing to the southwest, about 30 degrees above the horizon. Lights from the City of Moab (a small city of about 4,000, just over 10 miles away) show slightly in the lower right of the photograph.
Photographing the night sky has several positive effects. You will note that when one looks at the night sky (even in a very dark location), the colors and number of stars are much less than what the camera captures. This is because the camera is able to “gather” much more light over a time period than the eye. The camera can accumulate light and color range that your eye can not.

The above two photographs are much less dramatic than the first. This is because they are taken with the camera pointed directly overhead, capturing another portion of the Milky Way which does not contain the galactic center.

This last photograph was a big surprise. We thought we were photographing the Big Dipper and the North Star. We could clearly see both with our naked eyes but much to our surprise, the camera decided to show us millions of other stars! I included this photograph to illustrate another feature. You see the light “source” at the bottom center. Here the camera picked up light that was shining on two large rocks about 50 yards away. The light source was coming from the headlights of a car passing on a nearby road, probably another star gazer…remember it is 4:00a.

Also, note the airplane track in the lower right of the photograph. It’s the straight line moving somewhat vertically.