'Starry Night Quotes' 2018 Wall Calendar

Starry Night Quotes - 2018 Wall Calendar • 13-month • Jan 2018-Jan 2019 • click to enlarge

TWO CALENDAR OPTIONS:

1. FREE Download - You can download a mini PDF version of this calendar to view on your hand-held device or to print out from you own inkjet or laser printer (15 - 8.5" x 11" sheets). I can also email this PDF directly to you, if you want to sign up for my NightScaper newsletter:

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2. Order a Pre-printed calendar from my Etsy website for $24.99 - This spiral-bound, 28-page wall calendar looks similar to the above photo and is printed on beautiful glossy coated card stock. Folded, it is 11" x 8.5". Hanging on your wall it is 11" x 17". Because it is a 13-month calendar (January 2018 thru January 2019), you can order through January 2018 and still have a full calendar year!

$5.00 of your purchase is will be donated to the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) to help preserve our dark sky areas. (Your name and address will not be shared with IDA, unless you so designate.)

Inspiring quotes. Each month of my calendar includes quotes from great thinkers in our world's history that inspire us as we contemplate our relationship with the universe above us.

The above quote is from the rarely sung fourth verse of "Home on the Range" (click to enlarge).

Finding Darkness in rural America. The "Starry Night Quotes" calendar is part of my Finding Darkness project —a quest I am on to help find and protect our dark skies. These are places where we can still clearly see the night stars. My goal is not to be an alarmist about light pollution, but to promote the use and benefits of dark sky areas as sanctuaries for creativity and solace —areas where we can remove the noise from our busy lives, to think, dream and be inspired.

A Santa Fe astronomer has said, "...as light pollution spreads, we are slowly losing one of the oldest and most universal links to all of human history." As late as 1889, Van Gogh was able to experience and paint his famous “Starry Night”. If he were alive today, there would be nothing in the night skies over Saint Rémy, France to inspire him, as the Milky Way can no longer be seen from there.

Can you really see the Milky Way at night with your naked eyes? I'm often asked this question by people who have never seen the Milky Way —and over 80% of people in the United States have not had this amazing experience because of increasing light pollution. Here's an article wrote on the naked eye experience vs. what the camera sees under a Bortle class 1 to 3 sky.

Light pollution affects how we see the starry night sky. Persons in a bright suburban area or a city like Salt Lake City (Bortle sky class 7-9) can only see a few of the brightest stars. Those who are far the from city lights can often see the Milky Way and millions of stars (click to enlarge).

Our ability to see stars in the night sky lessens as light pollution increases. Feel free to download and share this image on social media (click to enlarge).

Press Release: Please feel free to share my Finding Darkness press release with your local media.

Popular Links: How to Shoot the Milky Way • Post Processing NightScapes • Workshops and PhotoWalks • Tutorials and Tips • Overcoming Lens Coma • Video Hangout with my Friends

Protecting Our Dark Skies

“Are we doing enough to protect our dark skies?”  That’s the audio lead-in used for this mini-documentary on KSL-TV. John Hollenhorst (KSL's Science & Nature Specialist) and videographer, Ken Fall followed us (Charli, Teresa, Joe, Michael and I) around this past March in Bryce Canyon National Park at 3:00 AM. It was about 20ºF, and we’re all bundled up, so don't expect a fashion show! But you will see some beautiful Milky Way skies, with stunning western foregrounds; and you'll learn how the park service and some cities like Flagstaff, AZ are working to protect our dark skies from light pollution.

Finding Darkness is a quest I am on to help find and protect our dark skies. These are places where we can still clearly see the night stars. My goal is not to be an alarmist about light pollution, but to promote the use and benefits of dark sky areas as sanctuaries for creativity and solace —areas where we can remove the noise from our busy lives, to think, dream and be inspired.

A Santa Fe astronomer has said, "...as light pollution spreads, we are slowly losing one of the oldest and most universal links to all of human history." As late as 1889, Van Gogh was able to experience and paint his famous “Starry Night”. If he were alive today, there would be nothing in the night skies over Saint Rémy, France to inspire him, as the Milky Way can no longer be seen from there.

Click images to enlarge

Starry Night Quotes is a 2018 wall calendar I am publishing to beautify your home or office and help people become more aware of the importance of preserving our dark sky areas. You can learn more about dark sky sanctuaries by watching or reading the KSL documentary and by visiting the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) website. $5.00 from every calendar sale on my Etsy website will be donated to IDA.

"Starry Night Quotes" is a 2018 wall calendar with emphasis on preserving our dark sky sanctuaries.

A vertical Milky Way and strong airglow. Photographed at Jackson Lake, with the Teton Range in Grand Teton National Park. One of my images featured in the KSL mini-documentary about preserving our dark skies.

Watch it here: Here's the complete transcript and the 5-minute video of the program that aired on April 25th: Dark Skies: 'Half the park is after dark'.

Popular Links: How to Shoot the Milky Way • Post Processing NightScapes • Workshops and PhotoWalks • Tutorials and Tips • Overcoming Lens Coma • Video Hangout with my Friends

NightScape Photo Walks

Milky Way rising over Silver Lake near Brighton, Utah ~ © Royce Bair (click to enlarge).
Reddish glow on the left is light pollution from Park City, and on the right is from Heber City.

NightScape Photo Walks: I've been doing free, local astro-landscape photo walks near the Salt Lake City, Utah metro area for the past few years, like the above location, which is only 11 miles (18 km) from the edge of the city, and this recent photowalk in Utah's west desert. We've had as many as 100 people participate in these free events, and the response has been incredibly positive and rewarding. Our next NightScapeWalk is March 11-12 near Wendover, Nevada.

This Dark Sky Finder map shows that Brighton, UT (the middle purple marker) is only 15 miles from the
inner city lights of Salt Lake City, UT. Brighton and nearby Silver Lake are still in a fairly light polluted
Bortle Scale Class 6 (orange color). However, the rising Milky Way in the eastern sky (to the right)
lies across darker regions (yellow, green, blue and gray with Bortle Scale Classes 5 through 2).

Acceptable Astro-Landscapes in a light-polluted environment: Even though the site is affected by light pollution from the nearby city, and is in a Bortle Scale Class 6, acceptable images of the Milky Way sky were still obtainable because the camera was pointed away from the largest source of light pollution and towards a region having darker skies (Bortle Scale Class 5 through 2).

NightScape Photo Walks near your city. I'm looking to do free photo walks in other areas around the world. Like our Salt Lake City event, the location needs to be conveniently close to a major city, yet far enough away to provide reasonably good photography of the starry night sky. You can check to see if your favorite area meets this criteria by referring to this Dark Sky Finder map of the United States. Your location should have a Bortle Scale Class 5 (yellow) or lower. Use this Dark Site Finder map for all other locations in the world.

An invitation: I invite photographers everywhere to suggest future photo walk venues by tagging your favorite astro-landscapes with the hashtag: #NightScapeWalk (capitalization is not required) — on Instagram, Facebook or Google+. Please include the location of your NightScape and any other interesting background information in your photo description. To qualify, locations should be within 50 miles (80 km) or 90 minutes drive time (which ever is less) from a major city or metropolitan area (over 100,000 population). You can also suggest a location on my NightScape Meetup page.

Showcasing your images: From time-to-time, I will feature some of the best images on my @RoyceBairPhoto Instagram account, complete with credits and links to the photographer. The featured images will also appear on my Facebook fan page. These suggested locations may also become venues for future NightScape Photo Walks that I will organize and provide free to the public.

Paid Workshops: I also do paid group workshops. Past and future workshops are listed on my NightScape Meetup site. Private workshops of 1-4 people are also available.

Urban Nightscapes by Sergio Garcia Rill

What if one could see the Milky Way behind a big city skyline? What if the lights of the city didn’t interfere with the view of the starry night sky? That was the thought astro-landscape photographer Sergio Garcia Rill had when he decided to create his latest time lapse video, “Urban Nightscapes Texas.”

Sergio had been shooting astro-nightscapes for a few years, and because of light pollution he had to travel hours from the city to be able to see and photograph the night sky. “But I wanted to make a combination of what it might be to see the night sky from within the city and my Urban Nightscapes series was born,” Rill wrote in his blog.

Sergio makes it clear, the images and video he’s produced are mockup views. “The stars in the video have been added through digital manipulation and the sky doesn’t look that way inside the city due to the light pollution.” I did my best effort to try to simulate the sky as it would have looked without light pollution…I’m aware that these kind of shots are (at least at the moment) impossible to do in camera.”

Rill admits that the process was not simple or quick, but at the moment he feels that going into the technical details on how he did it will only change the focus from the actual video to the process of achieving the video. He does reveal that he used Nikon D600 and D750 cameras for both the foregrounds and backgrounds, and various lenses including, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikon 35mm f/1.8, Bower 14mm f/2.8 and Bower 24mm f/1.4. Sergio used Lightroom, Photoshop and LRTimeLapse for doing his processing.

Challenges: “Although the biggest challenge was the processing of the images, finding the right locations that could represent each city and a good angle for aligning the night sky was the second most challenging and time consuming task,” reports Sergio. The images for the city foregrounds were taken around Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio Texas. The skies were taken at various locations in the United States (but mostly Texas).

Satisfaction: “I guess the most satisfaction I get is when I get asked what camera I used, or where did I go to shoot —because people believe there might be a place where the sky looks like this inside the city or that I have a special camera that would allow me to take these shots. While I'm not trying to fool anyone (and I do try to clarify that in the video description), those questions make me realize I made a good job and the resulting video looks ‘real’.”

Sergio Garcia Rill currently lives in Houston, Texas. Sergio is planning on doing a series of videos like this for other mayor cities, based on his availability to travel to new cities. Currently, his sights are set on his hometown of Mexico City.  More of Sergio's photography can be seen at  his website.

Royce's "Milky Way NightScapes" ebook

Royce's 2015 NightScape Workshop Schedule

Royce's 2015 Multi-City NightScape Seminar Tour

Light Pollution in Arches N.P.

A mid-September Milky Way slices through a light-painted Delicate Arch, Arches N.P. ~ © Royce Bair

Last week, I was in Arches National Park teaching a "NightScape" workshop. We had a great time, and the conditions couldn't have been more perfect. This wonderful national park has been luring me here for over thirty years. I just can't get enough of the unique sandstone sculptures —and its obvious with the increased automobile traffic and the growth of the nearby town of Moab, that many others feel the same way. It not surprising that the calm and secluded experiences I had three decades ago can no longer be enjoyed —we must learn to share theses geological wonders with many others, both day and night.

Lights from passing automobiles now makes it quite difficult to photography Balanced Rock at night, because it is so close to the main park road. Although Delicate Arch is about a mile and a half from the nearest road, light pollution from the nearby town of Moab, less than 12 miles away, now makes a considerable impact on the night sky behind the arch (compare the photo below, with the one above).

The night sky BEFORE darkening (in Photoshop) the area under arch. The town of Moab is 12 miles
away, just behind the center of the arch. ~ © Royce Bair

The first time I came to photographed Delicate Arch, thirty years ago, there were only a half-dozen people surrounding the arch at sunset. Last week (and each time I've gone in the past few years) there have been over 100 people! Night photographers should still not be too concerned though, as the crowds quickly disperse after sunset. Other than myself and my workshop participants, no more than two or three stay longer than two hours after sunset, and none more than three or four hours.

The "sunset" crowd behind me at Delicate Arch last week... ~ © Royce Bair

...and the crowd in front of me at Delicate Arch. Usually, less than two or three people hang around
for the stars to appear, so night photographers are left with few distractions other than increasing
light pollution from distant cars, air traffic in the sky, and the town of Moab, Utah. ~ © Royce Bair

Use promo code "nightcape" to save 20% off premium stock photography at prime.500px.com

Recognizing the Milky Way in a Light-Polluted Sky

Milky Way rising over Silver Lake near Brighton, Utah ~ © Royce Bair (click to enlarge).
Reddish glow on the left is light pollution from Park City, and on the right is from Heber City.

Last Friday, I participated in an evening photowalk with about 100 local photographers. With the help of a lecture I gave a few days before, I guided many on their first ever photographs of a starry night sky. For several, it was a dream-fulfilled to see and photograph their first Milky Way.

People from big cities throughout the world often write and tell me that they'd love to see and photograph the Milky Way, but it is too light-polluted in their region. For the most part, that's true. However, in almost any area of the world, you can still see the Milky Way if you're willing to drive a few miles and train your eyes to see the shape and features of our galaxy—viewed from the perspective of our planet.

The above photo was taken only 11 miles from the edge of Salt Lake City, and we are still in a 'orange' zone according to Dark Sky Finder's map of the area. Even after the Milky Way appeared at 11:00 PM, in the region that I had predicted, many still could not see it until I photographed it and showed it to them on my camera's LCD monitor:

Even this raw, unprocessed view is 4X brighter than the naked eye view, because of the
light-gathering power of a 20-seconds time exposure, a fast lens, and a high ISO.

It's not hard to recognize the Milky Way in the top, post-processed photo, but it takes some education, experience, and practice to recognize the features of our galaxy, especially in a light-polluted sky, where the contrast and colors of the stars are muted by stray, artificial light.

More light-gathering: The top photo is a double-exposure of the middle image and this 3X exposure to increase the detail in the landscape and the reflection in the lake water:

A 60-seconds exposure washes out the sky and blurs the stars, but adds detail to the landscape. Adding the post-processed sky (mainly contrast adjustments in Photoshop's 'Curves') from the middle image produces the final photo (top).

Stevenstone Library at Night by Roger Moffatt

Milky Way sky over The Library at Stevenstone in Devon, England ~ © Roger Moffatt

Our Photo of the Week (POTW) was taken by British photographer, Roger Moffatt. Roger used a Nikon D90 and a 10.5mm fisheye lens. This photo is make from two images joined together. His exposure time was 47 seconds for the top image and 54 seconds for the bottom. Both were at ISO 800 and f/2.8. The building was painted briefly by a torchlight (Lenser T7 tactical).

Roger Moffatt

Yes, there was light pollution. This photo flies against an argument I often hear: "I can't do 'starscapes' in my area because of all the light pollution." While that is somewhat true, there is usually some distant corner of of your countryside that is less populated with people and lights. Roger found that in this corner of England. (England's population density of 395/km2 [1,023/sq mi] is about 12 times greater than the United States, and 30 times greater than my home state of Utah!)

Astronomers turn away now! Roger did not originally intend to join the two images together, and he admits that they technically don't match due to the fisheye distortion. He had to do a lot of post work to pull them together. Even though the disparities become more obvious the longer one looks at it, he likes the final artistic impact, and so do I.

Step-by-step post process: On Roger's blog, he shares how he exposed, processed and combined the two photos to make this final image.

More about Roger: You can learn more about Roger Moffatt at his website, and see more of his photography on his Flickr photostream. Roger is also the creator of The Golden Hour Calculator (used to find the "Magic Hour" for photography at any given location).

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Jack Fusco: Finding Darkness in New Jersey

"Night Watch" ~ Cape May, NJ ~ © Jack Fusco

Living in New Jersey is definitely the biggest challenge for starry night photographer, Jack Fusco. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the U.S. so escaping light pollution isn’t an easy task and often feels quite impossible! Because areas near the ocean have the least light pollution, much of Jack's work takes on a bit of a nautical feel.

"When I started photography, I was very big into seascapes and have finally found myself back at the ocean, but more recently under the stars, instead of waiting for the sun to rise. 
After I took my first set of star trails I was immediately hooked on night photography. It was a lot of experimentation at first, but each night was more exciting than the night before. I found myself out shooting any time the skies were clear driving around trying to find new places to shoot or visiting places that I had shot before, but only during the day. Before I knew it I was driving further, sleeping less, and drinking much more coffee!" says Jack.

"Live Endlessly" ~ Strathmere, NJ ~ © Jack Fusco

This photo near Strathmere, NJ is a typical example of his frustrations and his ecstasy. After a few weeks of bad weather or just bad timing, clear skies were finally in the forecast. Fusco excitedly headed out to a spot he had been waiting to shoot only to notice a haze settling in. Jack decided that it had been too long since he was able to last shoot, so he was going to carry on towards his destination. "I stayed positive and continued on hoping it would clear up by the time I got there, but didn’t have such luck," laments Jack. Still determined to shoot, he decided to explore some areas other areas in Strathmere. He continued to found himself staring at nothing but hazy skies, but looking out east over the ocean he saw a sky full of stars. He was able to set up just in time to catch the Milky Way rising over the ocean and spent the next few hours relaxing out on the sand!

"Finding Sirius" ~ Ocean City, NJ ~ © Jack Fusco

After three hours of shooting star trails Jack decided to take a few extra minutes before making the drive back home, and ended up taking this shot. Aside from being one of his favorite shots, it serves as a reminder to him to keep looking beyond what his plans. It reminds him to not just plan his shots, but keep an open mind and always remember to have fun while he's shooting.

"Star Shepherd" ~ Acadia National Park, Maine ~ © Jack Fusco

Fasco sometimes travels to neighboring states for his star photography. The Bass Harbor Lighthouse is at the top of his list when he visits Acadia National Park, Maine — a 12 hour drive from his home in Toms River, NJ. He stayed out until around 3:00 am to take this panoramic, before starting the long drive home.

"Sea Isle Stars" ~ taken w/ his new D800E

Equipment and tools: Jack just recently made the big switch from Canon to Nikon. He's very excited about his new setup for shooting the stars which consists of a Nikon D800E and a Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8. Unfortunately, the weather conditions haven’t allowed him much time to really get out and push his new gear, but so far he couldn’t be happier with the results he's been able to get.

His most valuable tools have been web sites like ClearDarkSky, (light pollution maps and clear sky charts) and apps like Star Walk (astronomy guide). A lot of pre-planning goes in to his shots and both tools are integral parts of his process. Jack first uses the ClearDarkSky site to find new locations and monitor the conditions in those areas. After he as picked out a location, he then then uses Star Walk to figure out exactly when he needs to be there for what he planned on shooting. Editor's Note: Dark Sky Finder is another tool that can be used to find the darkest skies in your area.


What Drives Jack's Night Work?  "I find photographing the night sky to be rewarding on many levels. After driving for hours to get as far from light pollution as possible, there’s a huge rush of excitement when you first get out under the stars. It’s like an entirely different sky that you’re looking up at compared to what I see when I step out of my house. After running around and getting all set up to shoot, you then get to relax and take in all of the beauty of a star filled sky.

"I often have people make comments about how I must have a great deal of patience to sit out there while taking stars trails, but it really couldn’t be further from that. I find the time spent out there to be like an escape from the rest of the world. Once the shot is all finished and ready to be posted online, seeing positive or excited reactions to it is certainly a great feeling... Hearing that someone wants to go explore and get a good view of the night sky after seeing my work is a really amazing thing to hear. [It] is probably one of the best compliments I can receive."

More of Jack Fusco's work can be found on his website and his Facebook page.

Editor's Note: The day I interviewed Jack (via the Internet), Hurricane Sandy was about to make landfall. Fusco's home town of Toms River, is only about a mile inland from one of the hardest hit areas of New Jersey: Seaside Heights and Seaside Park! As I finish writing this, I can't help wonder how many residents wouldn't mind having more connected power and light pollution at this moment (See satellite view of Hurricane Sandy's mid-Atlantic blackout)! I still have not been able to make contact with Jack, but he did manage somehow to post this message on his Facebook page: "We were very fortunate and made it through the storm okay. We're still without power, but certainly lucky to have what we do. There was an incredible amount of loss that is still difficult to fully comprehend. My thoughts are with all of those that have and that still are going through this tragedy." I ditto Jack's concerns, and hope many will join me in making a contribution to a relief charity of their choice.

Searching for Darkness - Using 'Dark Sky Finder' to locate the Darkest Skies for Night Photography

Big Dipper stars and meteor over Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah ~ © Royce Bair

Trying to find a sky dark enough to reveal the stars in the night sky can be challenging when you live near a large city. The high light pollution from the city lights overpowers all but the brightest stars. For this reason, I often drive west of Salt Lake City, where I live, and into to the west desert. The famous Bonneville Salt Flats are located about 90 miles west of SLC, just off of I-80, about 10 miles before you reach the border town of Wendover, Nevada. In the above photo, I was able to capture a meteor during the Quadrantid meteor shower, as it streaked between the Big Dipper and Polaris.

How far away from the city lights does one have to travel to find skies dark enough to photograph the stars? Typically, I tell people that you must be about 50 to 75 miles (80 to 120 km) from a large city (over 100,000 population), and 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km) from a smaller town (under 10,000). That can be difficult in many of the populated areas of the world.

The Earth at Night - "Earth's Lights" - a composite satellite image from NASA

Here's a closer view of just North and Central America

A Useful Tool: A more scientific approach is to use a website I found recently called, "Dark Sky Finder". Jonathan Tomshine has incorporated light pollution information from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center and layered it over Google Maps! Here a screenshot of the Salt Lake City metro area and the desert area, west to Wendover, NV. (If you click and enlarge the map, you can see the Bonneville Salt Flats along I-80, just before you get to Wendover.):

Dark Sky Finder screenshot of SLC metro and west desert to Wendover, Nevada

The color coding indicates the sky darkness of area: the white and red layers over the city center are pretty much "white-out" areas! The orange areas over the city suburbs aren't much better. These areas allow one to barely see only the brightest stars. The yellow areas have somewhat acceptable viewing conditions. The green areas are acceptable for star photography, but the blue and dark grey areas are best. As with all Google maps, you can toggle between this "Map" view and the "Satellite" and "Hybrid" view. Unfortunately, the NOAA light pollution data is only available for the USA.

Technical data for the top photo: The NightScape of the stars over the Bonneville Salt Flats was taken on January 4, 2011 at 3:45 A.M with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, using a Canon EF 15mm f2.8 Fisheye lens @ f3.5, 30 seconds, ISO 2500.

Find Darkness in a High Population Area: Check out this article about photographer, Jack Fusco, and how he overcame the challenges of light pollution in New Jersey!

Royce Bair is the editor of this blog and the photographer of the top image. Here is my gallery of NightScape images. My schedule of workshops, tutorials, and other events is available here.