Coulee City, WA.

Tags:   Ala Cozy Motel Ala Cozy Motel Coulee City Nikon Z50 Z50

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Zodiacal Light got stronger, and partial reddening of sky had already begun even before astronomical twilight. I was sleeping on the rock bed near the camera with my knees up. It was nice experience to be drowsy there viewing dark sky. My clothes were wet with night dew, when my iPhone alarm ringed after one hour, though my face was dry. It was fortunate that the small lenses of Ricoh Theta Z1 was kept clear thanks to USB micro dew heater below the lenses.

Aurora was not visible through the night.

site: 1,127m above sea level at lat. 44 39 58 North and long. 142 24 45 East, the summit of Mt.Hakodake 函岳 in Soya area 宗谷地方. It was my third visit there. Ambient temperature was around 5 degrees Celsius or 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild.

I watched many rabbits, foxes, and deer at the night. The site is said to be a rich habitat of brown bears, though I have never watched them in the area. They must be timid or cautious.

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While zipping over Brazil, during the final stages of my Swiss International Air Lines flight to São Paulo, we were accompanied by the wonders of the southern hemisphere sky.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and its smaller cousin, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), are visible near the upper edge of this image. These dwarf galaxies were long thought to be gravitationally bound to the Milky Way Galaxy. Measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope, announced in 2006, however, suggest that they may be moving too fast to be orbiting our home galaxy.

The bright 'star' to the right of the SMC is 47 Tucanae, the second brightest globular cluster in Earth's sky, containing half a million solar masses. This is a chance alignment. At a distance of 15'000 light years, the 47 Tucanae is much closer to us than the dwarf galaxy at almost 200'000 light years. According to a new study, the SMC may actually also be a chance alignment of two star-forming regions superimposed along our line of sight, separated bt almost the same distance as 47 Tucanae from us.

In the lower left of the image, another wonder of the southern sky, the Carina Nebula, is just clearing the horizon. The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) is one of the largest diffuse nebulae in our skies. It is about 4 times the size of the famous Orion Nebula. At a distance of 7500 light years, it is about half as far away from us as 47 Tucanae. The Carina Nebula has a diameter of 200 light years, which is 1/1000th of the distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud, or 200 billion (2×10¹¹) times the distance we flew from Zurich to São Paulo.

EXIF
Canon EOS-R, astro-modified by Richard Galli from EOS 4Astro
Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART
Mount: Boeing 777-300ER

Sky: Stack of 68x 5s @ ISO6400
Foreground: Stack of 5 exposures from the sky sequence

Tags:   Magellanic Cloud SMC LMC Carina Nebula Aerial Astrophotography Airborne Astrophotography Astronomy Pilots View Aviation

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Open road awaits on highway WA-155 N, skirting Banks Lake in the Upper Coulee of Grand Coulee in Washington State.

Those familiar with this location will note that a small sign announcing Banks Lake has been removed from the mid-distance as an artistic choice.

Tags:   Grand Coulee Upper Coulee Banks Lake WA-155 Porsche Yellow Nikon Z50 Z50

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Bright meteor was toward northwest. I did not notice it then.

There looks to be residual reddening of sky toward west beyond the meteorological radar after moonset like sunset glow. Some city lights are also near the direction. Weak greenish airglow and whitish zodiacal light are visible mainly toward east.

site: 1,127m above sea level at lat. 44 39 58 North and long. 142 24 45 East The summit of Mt.Hakodake 函岳 in Soya area 宗谷地方. It was my third visit there. Ambient temperature was around 5 degrees Celsius or 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild.

I watched many rabbits, foxes, and deer at the night. The site is said to be a rich habitat of brown bears, though I have never watched them in the area. They must be timid or cautious.

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