Early spring is the start of Milky Way season, but the Milky Way core doesn’t rise until the weeeee hours of the morning.
Naturally, the forecast is important because I’m not generally a morning person but sleep is still important. While I have a regular job, I need to keep a “normal” -ish sleep schedule. The forecast for the early morning of March 9th was looking decent so Christy and I made plans to get up at 2am. To make things even worse (better?) it was the weekend of the time change. “Spring Forward”. I knew I’d be exhausted and out of sync anyway, so might as well make it worthwhile, right? LOL
It took a bit to figure it out. If we wanted to be there by 3, we actually had to be there at 2 because of the time change. So weird and annoying. That meant I wanted to leave by 1am. Unfortunately we were a bit later getting out than I had planned but that’s okay. Technically the Milky Way didn’t rise until 4am but I wanted to be ready for it. It was only a short window of time after the moon went down but before the sun came up.
Why is it so important you ask? Well, the Milky Way actually rises a different times and locations. If I want a photo where the Milky Way is more to the southeast, I have to get photos earlier in the season therefore earlier in the day. In the fall, the Milky Way is more to the southwest so again, have to plan accordingly. I use PlanitPro to help me determine best times for locations.
As you can see from the screenshot, I can plot the location of my camera AND I can plot where I want the photo to be taken. Then, I can see what time the Milky Way will be where I want it to be for the best photos.
This shot could not happen later in the season because the Milky Way will be more southerly.
This is why planning is so very important!
We got there about 3:30 new time (stupid time change) and we started setting up. We immediately noticed clouds… DAGNABBIT! Why??? The forecast still said mostly clear so why were there clouds to the south?? NOT FAIR!
Because it is a habit, I check the aurora numbers, and WOW!! Lady aurora was dancing too!
I quickly flipped my camera around to the north and took some test shots.
Oh my yes, there she is!
As is par for the course, she eventually slowed down her dance but the Milky Way was about to rise, so it all came together nicely.. other than the clouds of course.
Usually Christy and I can see the Milky Way, but the clouds were hiding even the trail. Using our phones, we trusted our multiple star maps and started shooting in the direction the Milky Way was supposed to be in. We had our doubts, but hey, we’re there, we should take photos, right?
Even looking through my camera photo card as the sun started to come up, I continued having doubts. I wish I had believed and trusted more, because I think I would have had multiple awesome shots but of course I didn’t know this until later.
Driving home we both decided we want to try Crex Meadows again, if we can get clear skies. I really enjoy the ice over Phantom Lake and hope for more snow maybe next year.
Finally got home and went straight to bed. LOL
After I woke up around noonish, I started playing with the photos. I used Bridge and Photoshop and discovered that maybe, I DID capture the Milky Way. After some quick editing, I created a test stack using Sequator. Oh my, there IS a Milky Way!! This is going to be cool!!
March 9th was also the RRCC Monthly meeting plus it was the last day to enter the TCACCC Interclub Competition. It was a really busy weekend.
Finally, I caught up more of my sleep and was able to create a better sampling of the Milky Way photos. Ultimately I ended up with this.
