Night dish
Look" Another update!
So, now I've uploaded more goodness to flickr, so there's not much to say there. This was taken early one morning (rhymes with towards the end of an all night drive), but still hours away from twilight. The Gila Monster is lit entirely by moonlight. I was driving from Phoenix to Elephant Butte, so I took the scenic route by using US 60. It was great! Especially after 11 when the rest of the traffic had stopped. Once I was past Show Low, there was only another vehicle every twenty minutes or so. From the state line to Socorro I saw all of four vehicles on the road, but I had to stop completely a couple times for elk. They just weren't in a hurry to go anywhere. I saw dozens of them, plus a few deer and hundreds of rabbits. The VLA looks good at night, but the really cool thihg is the way the stars left streaks as the earth's rotation dragged them across the image. It was so still that I could hear that people were talking by the next dish down, and I could hear the whine of the motors as the dish was moved. Gotta love all my stuff from my dorm sitting in back of the jeep.
Ah, that road is a good one.
This picture appeals on many levels, and it can be appreciated by a lot of different sorts of people ... geeks, Jeep lovers (might people who are both be called "Jeeks"?) and people who like cool visual effects.
ReplyDeleteAhh... that takes me back. Salt River canyon with the top down, minimum wage working the night shift at the VLA.
ReplyDeleteHow long was this exposure?