We don’t know how many people can still experience natural nights but it’s definitely a minority according to satellite data of Earth at night. In my latest photo workshop I asked the 15 participants who can see the Milky Way without the need of long traveling and the answer was 1. About half of human population live in urban areas where artificial lights make the night sky too bright to see the galaxy. In the North America more than 90% of population can only see light polluted vanished night sky. If you have natural dark skies I hope you appreciate and try to preserve this natural treasure which most of us have lost. Learn more at @idadarksky darksky.org
Sharing with you a minute of peace and wonder, on the shores of Iceland, under a misty appearance of aurora. The timelapse video is from April. For the next Iceland photo workshops, tap the link in bio.
Music by @BarbadBayat from our growing project Celestial Orchestra. #northernlights#aurora#babakworkshops@twanight
One of my summer programs is Maine Stargazing & Photography retreat. Join us under one of the darkest skies in New England, for a week of educational and relaxing programs, Aug 29 - Sep 4. Only a few spots are left. Tap the link in my bio to learn more. #astrophotography#newengland#babakworkshops@medomakcamp@twanight
The full moon rising last night above a little island called the Egg Rock in the north shore of Boston. It’s home to many cormorants in the summer. They are visible in the closeup view. The elegant music of this video by @barbadbayat is a part of unreleased piece made for our growing project Celestial Orchestra.
Watch this in 4k quality on my YouTube Channel “Babak Tafreshi”. #moon#boston#nahant@twanight
From the roof of Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro, let’s fly out to almost 5 billion light years away, where a galaxy cluster is revealed by @nasawebb in its first Deep Field image; the sharpest infrared image of the universe so far. This is only the beginning for a revolutionary space telescope, placed a million miles away from Earth. Music by composer @barbadbayat.
Mind-blowing facts: the video begins with a wide angle lens similar to our eyes field of view. The Webb Deep Field is several thousand times smaller; the angular size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. In my second image, using a telephoto lens, the tiny square marking the deep field area in the southern constellation Volans, shows just a blank background. It would be blank even to a professional telescope. Thousands of galaxies - including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared - appears in this 12-hour total exposure by Webb. The galaxy cluster is SMACS 0723. Its light belongs to 4.6 billion years ago when Earth was just about to form. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it and distort their image to extended arcs. #astronomy#nasawebb#kilimanjaro@nasa@twanight
A magnificent aurora crown in Iceland night sky. It was rapidly moving overhead, changing color and shape every second, and for a moment this odd face appeared, like a norse warrior with a Viking horned helmet! Swipe to see a closeup and a timelapse video of the crown. The colors were visible to the eyes but less than what the camera revealed.
From my annual Iceland Aurora PhotoTour: babaktafreshi.com/Iceland
The piece “Norse Crown” is added to the fine art catalog for print or license inquiries (link in bio). #auroraborealis#northernlights#iceland#crown#babakworkshops
Devils Postpile at Night. According to @nationalparkservice this national monument in Sierra Nevada, California, takes its name from a cliff of cooled lava that formed into striking hexagonal columns some 100,000 years ago. The unusual 60-foot (20 m) formations of @devilspostpilenps are some of the finest examples of columnar basalt in the world. This recent photograph is a 10 second exposure of the Milky Way rising above the cliff which is lit by a soft warm light. On the far right is bright orange star Antares, marking the heart of constellation Scorpius. Swipe for closer looks. I used an astrophotography camera (EOS Ra) that reveals deeper in the red end of the spectrum to better record celestial nebulae. One of them is visible near the center, right above the pines, and is called Lagoon Nebula. Located in constellation Sagittarius it is visible to unaided eyes in dark skies, as a colorless fuzzy star. The little halo is in fact a giant star-making cloud about 4000 light years away.
This piece is added to the fine art catalog for print orders. Tap the link in bio. #devilspostpile#astrophotography#earth@twanight
“The End of Night in Bryce Canyon”, Utah, Jan 2021. Swipe to see the complete view. Stars are rising above the silhouette of profile-looking sandstone formations. The long-exposure of about two hours, revealing startrails due to the Earth rotation, is made from a timelapse sequence, captured near the end of a long winter starry night. The light of dawn brightens the eastern horizon.
This piece is available in the fine art print catalog. Tap the link in bio to explore the options. #longexposure#brycecanyon#nightphotography@twanight
Damavand in Alborz Mountains of Iran is the highest live volcano in Asia, and the highest peak in the Middle East, at over 5600 m (18500 ft). It has a special place in Persian mythology and culture. In May, on a family visit to Iran I went to this little village, 2 hr drive north of Tehran, with stunning view to the peak, bringing back memories of my earlier years of night sky photography in 1990s in this area. Today is the National Day of Mt #damavand for Iranians as well as Tirgan midsummer celebration; one of the most ancient traditions that is still celebrated.
Night sky photography is not just recording the outer space. It leads you to a life of adventures. It becomes a lifestyle. You start working when others enjoy parties, watch TV, or sleep. But like the explorers of unknown, you will be gifted by unique experiences to share with others. Some scenes are forever-engraved moments in my memory. From the boundless darkness of African Sahara when the summer Milky Way was arching above giant sandstones to the shimmering beauty of the Grand Canyon under moonlight, or heavenly curtains of dancing aurora over Lapland, and crystal clear skies of Sierra Nevada in California as filmed here last week. This timelapse video using a fast lens and a sensitive camera reveals more than our eyes can sea. Bright orange star Antares and the rest of constellation Scorpion appears above me. The galactic center and a couple of star clusters appears on the left near the scene end, as well as two meteors and a few faint satellites.
I look forward to the next program: Maine Stargazing & Photography Retreat in late August, 3 hours drive north of Boston where I live. This educational program is open to everyone at any level of experience. Tap the link in my bio to learn more. #astrophotography#stargazing#babakworkshops#canon@twanight
Yesterday morning. A beautiful conjunction of Moon and Venus with the most peaceful orchestra by the morning songbirds. These behind the scene videos are by iPhone. I was at Mono Lake at the end of my annual California photo workshop. Look forward to the next class in late August in Maine. Tap the link in bio to learn more or visit babaktafreshi.com/workshop
There are a dozen of notable annual meteor showers. The Perseids on Aug 11/12 and Geminids on Dec 14 are usually the strongest, though this year both are affected by bright moonlight. Here I was on the mountains of New Hampshire and set one of the cameras to capture them in real-time video using a fast 35mm wide angle lens at f1.2 and a sensitive camera. The brightest meteors are called fireballs; those brighter than planet Venus which is the brightest object in the night sky after the moon. Most visible meteors do not create meteorites. They are caused by particles about a small pebble down to a grain of sand, weigh less than 1-2 grams. The brilliant flash of light from a meteor is not caused so much by the mass, but by its high kinetic energy generated by the speed. Fireballs like these are generated by a larger tennis ball meteoroid and may reach the ground in form of a small rock depending on its composition (ice, metal or rock). An upcoming notable meteor shower in 2022 will be the Leonids on Nov. 19 (expected to outburst). @twanight#meteorshower#astrophotography#sigmafpl
Last night at the annual California Nightscapes photo workshop with @mikeshawphotography and our participants who enjoyed a vivid dusk and a starry night at Mono Lake and its otherworldly tufa formations. The Milky Way image in this video is with an iPhone 13 Pro, a single raw shot. Using a little phone-tripod adapter I placed iPhone on a tripod, activated Apple ProRAW file format in the camera setting to get a better quality file, managed to easily frame the image as stars were visible on the live view screen, then simply expanded the night mode exposure slider to maximum 30 seconds and shed a dim red light on tufa for a few seconds. The 30-sec exposure option is available with iPhone 12 & 13 pro and only when the phone is on a fixed place (tripod or a rock), otherwise a handheld iphone can do up to 10 sec (stacking and smartly blending shorter exposures without the user noticing). The Milky Way photography is possible with several other phone brands. Use a little tripod and enjoy this the next time you are under great dark skies. #nightphotography#shotoniphone@apple@twanight
The Earth companion for more than 4 billion years, the moon plays an essential role to life on this planet. Without its tidal force the evolution path of life may never developed this way. Enjoy this minute with crescent moon sets over various landscapes: a sea of clouds in Canary Islands, the rugged peaks of Sierra in California, a town in Utah, and a very thin new moon above the shore of Boston. Music by @barbadbayat from our ongoing project Celestial Orchestra. @twanight#moon#nighphotography
Where are the fireflies that you used to see in the childhood? The population of many nocturnal species has notably decreased in the recent decades. Light pollution is an important factor. For fireflies they signal mainly to mate but not in the presence of artificial light. No signal, no mating, and no future generation. They are still found in dark sky places. On this summer night of Maine they were all over this blueberry field. Watch the complete clip "Signals of Love" on my YouTube channel. Music by composer @BarbadBayat.
If you live outside of cities you can help saving nocturnal societies by using less outdoor lights, warmer softer lights, shielded and pointed to the ground (the light itself should not be visible from a distance), and by turning lights off when not needed. #firefly#lightpollution#maine@twanight@idadarksky