August 21, 2017
Being that Joshua Tree is a bit of a drive(almost 200 miles to the shooting locations), I decided to see if there was a location that was a bit closer to the cave that would provide enough darkness to photograph the Milky Way. So after consulting the DarkSkyFinder.com light pollution map, I settled on a location about 90 miles northwest(as the crow flies) of Downtown Los Angeles in Lockwood Valley at the foot of Mt. Pinos. I was somewhat familiar with the area since the Boy Scout Camp(Camp Three Falls) is in the valley and I ended up setting up my gear on the Boy Scout Camp Road. Also since my last trip to Joshua Tree, I’d purchased a “Red Intensifier” filter, which is said to reduce some of the yellow cast you see from light pollution. The first 5 pictures are from this shooting session. The last two pictures are from Joshua Tree since I noticed something in one of the picture that I thought was interesting and I acquired some new software to do panorama stitching that made some panorama shots that I’d take usable.
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Milky Way from Lockwwod Valley
Pretty much the same shot as above but different orientation and you can see a bit more of the foreground. Since the orientation of the shot cuts off the view to the southeast you don’t see the light pollution from LA. The light you see at the horizon is from the cities in the valleys towards the coast(Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, and Moorpark). Again the “Red Intensifier” filter was used with this shot.
