September 26, 2018
The starman has been out and about, seeking out the darkest places in Southern California. The Perseids(meteor shower) occurred in early August and peaked on August 13th. They’re caused by a cloud of dust left by comet Swift-Tuttle that the Earth passes though late July and early August each year. So what better opportunity to capture the Milky Way and a meteor in the same shot. I shot at some familiar places(Lockwood Valley and Arroyo Hondo) and a new and very dark place(Amboy Crater).
Milky Way over Amboy Crater.
Madame wanted to see the meteor shower too, I don’t think she’d actually ever seen one(just hearing other folk say, hey there’s one). So we packed up the Prius with food, beverages(she had a couple of beers and Diet Coke for me) and the dogs and headed out to the desert. We’d never taken the girls out for a long car ride, and this was about a 3 hour drive, each way. Amboy Crater is about 80 miles southeast of Barstow on Route 66 and is an extinct volcanic crater. It’s really dark out there and I thought the crater would provide a nice foreground. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived the galactic center was already starting to set, but I still managed to get a good shot. The little bit of light pollution from 29 Palms(about 30 miles away) and Palm Springs(about 60 miles away) outlined the crater nicely.
