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Sewer problems! (Click on images to enlarge)

Monday was quite eventful around the cabin. Work on the sewer line leading from my cabin that started on Friday escalated into a major project by Monday morning. A maintenance worker was initially checking on temporary patches put on the line and to install an outlet where they could clear the pipe if there were any clogs. After some digging by hand two men found more holes in the pipe and lots of tree roots intertwined and reducing the flow. I went away briefly and when I returned I saw this large backhoe parked by the cabin. Now they were doing some serious digging. By the end of the day they discovered all sorts of problems. They were to return Tuesday morning to replace most of the pipe, in the meantime they had shut off my water and none of the plumbing could be used. One told me I could use the campground facilities, which aren’t far but it was like camping in my cabin, without the fun of a tent. I got a gallon of water from a campsite and saw the nearest bathroom about ¼ mile from the cabin. Well, the inconvenience lasted just overnight, by the late morning the new pipe was installed and water was running.

The moon hovers over the tree line.

By those standards the rest of the day was boring. My friend Rush Dudley from Albuquerque arrive from visiting his son in Oregon. He’s staying in the nearby campground and wants to go out for some night sky photography. In the evening we hiked down the North Kaibab trail, though not far. He stopped at the Coconino Point, about .7 of a mile down, I continued to Supai Tunnel, about another 1.3 miles where there is a good view of the canyon and a water source and toilets. My plan was to hike while it was still light, photograph the scene at night, then hike back out. I’d be able to get some nice photos from below the rim of the canyon. The moon hovered above the trees on the rim as I hiked down the trail. I used the super wide angle fisheye lens to get the surrounding canyon walls and the distant landscape illuminated by the waxing moon.

View from Supai Tunnel.

Climbing out a cliff was brilliantly lit by the moonlight so I stopped to take a few shots. My main worry about the climb out was avoiding the mule poop, since they use the trail to ferry visitors down and back out of the canyon. My headlamp was bright enough so I avoided disaster.

A cliff halfway up the Kaibab Trail.

Our Milky Way (not the candy bar) (Click on images to enlarge)

Looking up at the night sky it really is remarkable how many stars you can see and how much detail can be seen in the Milky Way. After the moon set Sunday night I shot a few pictures of our galaxy. The detail here is the central part near the constellation Sagittarius, part of which takes on the shape of a teapot, with the “steaming” Milky Way coming out of its spout. The teapot is five stars that look vaguely like a house to the left of the Milky Way, the “spout” star just about in the center of the picture. I like this part of the galaxy since there is so much to look at. The dark portions are interstellar dust clouds obscuring stars that are behind them. Gas around nebula glows red and many clusters of stars can be seen. And the shapes of all the big features are so interesting.

Bright Angel Point tree

I end up photographing the same trees/plants over time mainly when I see something new or a different angle. I’m sure I’ve shot this great tree several times and around 11 pm the Milky Way made a diagonal across the sky that followed a branch as it extended out.

Milky Way arches over moonlit rim.

This extreme wide shot is with a 16mm fisheye lens, which normally produces all sorts of wild distortion. I kept the horizon straight and centered and with the sky and landscape there aren’t the usual objects that would be bent at all sorts of strange angles. The Milky Way was naturally curving that way and the moon provided some nice lighting to the canyon. The view is almost 180 degrees from left to right.

Viva le Harley. (Click on images to enlarge)

Getting groceries is quite the trip from the North Rim. There is a small campground general store and a “North Rim Store” just outside the park but they don’t carry more than snacks or canned goods. Though the general store here has a whole isle of bread, I guess for lots of sandwiches when camping or hiking. So the solution is to drive to another state: Utah. The town of Kanab is about 85 miles from here and a lot hotter at 97 degrees yesterday. On the way back I stopped at Jacob Lake, at 41 miles, the town closest to the main park entrance. It consists of the Jacob Lake Inn, which is a “Café Motel Curios Store”. The counter at the restaurant is nice so I had lunch. I noticed a group of French tourists inside, turns out they are Harley-Davidson riders, flying the tri-color from their motorcycles.

Saturday night’s trio of the moon, Jupiter and Venus.

Friday night’s ISS flyover past the Jupiter-Venus-Moon grouping.

As the moon waxes I’m hoping to get some of the canyon lit up to get the stars and the canyon in one photo. The last two days have been good for photographing the moon itself as it aligns with Jupiter and Venus. For the last few weeks the planets have come closer together and created a diagonal line as they set in the west. (You can see this even in cities.) Friday they were joined by a crescent moon with the planets on top. Saturday the moon was to the left, forming a slightly tilted triangle. Compare the shot from Saturday which shows “Earthshine” on the unlit portion of the moon to the Friday photo which has the International Space Station flying by the trio. (I followed the cropping advice for the ISS shot from Ken Spencer, who has a Ken Spencer that I think he’s been doing for over 6 years!)  Almost forgot to mention, if you look very closely at Jupiter (on the top) in Saturday’s image, you can see 3 of the planet’s big moons.

9:40pm view from Cape Royal.

Here’s an attempt from Saturday night of the canyon and the Milky Way from Cape Royal. The only disadvantage of shooting from the North Rim is that you get the South Rim lights in the picture. There is some glow on the horizon from towns and the pinpoints of light on the rim are car headlights along the Desert View Drive.

WARNING!

On Thursday I took a short hike on the Widforss Trail to scout out some views. At the trail head a woman with hiking poles was just coming out. She said, “The grouse is loose.” And pointed to the information board. It indeed had a sign that said, “WARNING Aggressive Blue Grouse”. “Like a mother hen,” said the woman. I had heard about this grouse from the park employees who live next to me, they said to arm yourself with hiking poles. The trail sign said the grouse’s nesting area is blocked off and to take the trail detour. Which I did and after rejoining the trail, I see a chicken sized bird with dark feathers. The grouse! Soon as I aimed my camera, she bore down on me. Even though I was past the pink tape the park set up to designate her nesting area, she chased me west along the trail. I snapped a few more pictures as she screeched a couple of times and hopped up on a log. I guess her territory is quite large.

The grouse approaches your correspondent.

The grouse not liking the human.

After recovering from that ordeal, I headed out in the evening to Cape Royal, about a 45 minute drive. I made it just before sunset where dozens of people had gathered to watch. The viewpoint juts out far into the canyon and you have a good look at formations named Wotans Throne and Freya Castle. There was thick layer of haze on the horizon and in the canyon, something that would affect the photos. People generally leave a viewpoint after sunset and as I gathered my equipment and walked back out to the point, the visitors were streaming to their cars.

Big Dipper and Polaris.

I’ve been experimenting with close-up shots of plants and the stars. One requirement is that the air has to be completely still for the 30 seconds it takes for the exposure. Gusts of wind were coming up from the canyon swaying the trees and plants. I found a small clearing that seemed to be protected from the wind that might work. After going through a few contortions, I managed to frame the Big Dipper and Polaris with an interesting branch of a juniper tree. Occasional breezes would move the plant and I kept altering the composition. Fifty minutes later I think I had a shot. Fellow astrophotographer Dean Ketelsen pointed out that the subtle color differences between bluish and yellow or reddish stars are more apparent when they are out of focus. You can definitely see the differences in this photo.

Swirling clouds. (Click on images to enlarge)

I had a nice talk with a ranger named Steve at the Backcountry Office on Wednesday. He deals with people who want to hike into the canyon and gives general advice about trails around the North Rim. I introduced myself and Steve was very interested in the night sky photography. He’s done some himself and is fascinated with clouds, cloud formation and deformation (never knew that happened) so has taken many cloud photos. He does sequences of clouds as they form, move, sometimes drop rain and sometimes just collapse. Steve was at Natural Bridges National Park when they needed something to increase the number of visitors which had fallen below 100,000 a year. The park is in one of the darkest areas of the country. Steve said his house in the park was 45 miles from the nearest town and any kind of substantial artificial light. They applied for and received a Dark Sky Park designation from the International Dark Sky Association, attracting people interested in seeing great night skies. He highly suggested I go there to shoot photos. On a walk later in the day on the Transept Trail between the cabin and the Lodge, I saw these swirling clouds in the west and thought of Steve. The image looked much more dramatic in black and white, so here it is.

Another Grand Canyon sunset.

If you are tired of another sunset shot, skip this section. Here’s another colorful sunset, this time from about 100 feet from the cabin. My neighbors said you often see the best sunsets from this location and they were right. Four people showed up, snapped some pictures with their phones, then left as the colors on the clouds became more intense. I decided to stay to watch the colors.

ISS flies over North Rim Star Party.

I tried another space station fly over shot, this time at the Star Party gathering on the Lodge veranda Wednesday night. I had plotted out the path of the station from a map on the Heavens Above website but ended up being short on exposure. Thinking the station would disappear into the Earth’s shadow sooner, I just did a one minute shot. Probably two minutes would have been better. The green line is a laser that John, one of the amateur astronomers, was using to point out Saturn to visitors.

The talk/demonstration went surprisingly well yesterday evening. I set up by the outdoor fireplace on the veranda of the Grand Canyon Lodge which has an amazing view of the canyon. I wore the uniform and hat, which made me look very official. There are rustic benches in a semi-circle around the speaker which gives it a “campfire” feel. About 20 or so people came, a few more would stop to listen during the 45 minute talk. I wasn’t showing pictures but showed the camera equipment I use and talked about the various settings and a few of the good places to shoot night sky photos. Some people brought their cameras. Two children, who I think might have been Japanese, asked me to sign their Junior Ranger book after the talk. The mother encouraged the shy children and they presented their booklet, in which they wrote what they learned at the talk. There was a space for the park ranger to sign. I think they complete the book and get a Junior Ranger badge, which I have always wanted. I told them, “Well, I’m not a ranger but I’ll sign the book.”

Four of my neighbors from the cabin, the park employees, came to the talk which was very nice. They introduced me to a volunteer couple they know, Lori and Bob. After the talk my friends, Ellyse, Jacob, Christian and Brian ordered a pizza from the Deli in the Pines, at the lodge. I got a ham sandwich and they said to join them at Lori and Bob’s place by the heliport for dinner. Sounded like a great invitation. The couple park their motor home at an area north of the cabins which happens to be right next to the heliport used as a staging area for medical emergencies. They had a clear view to the west, just a meadow and unfortunately the waste treatment plant between their picnic table and the horizon. It was a pleasant dinner.

Pinyon pine tree. (Click to enlarge)

Later that night I photographed a pinyon pine tree that was jutting out of a huge bolder. I climbed up on the treeless side of the bolder to set up my tripod. The craggy branches and clumps of needles mimicked the lumpy look of our Milky Way.

Artist-in-Residence flyer. (Click on images to enlarge).

Tuesday evening I’m giving the first of three talks about night sky photography. They are really demonstrations of the techniques I use and how visitors can shoot their own night sky photos. I’m appearing at the veranda of the North Rim Grand Lodge, where rangers do many afternoon programs and where visitors gather. The administration office printed up these posters which are apparently distributed around the rim.

Space Station streaks across the sky.

I photographed the International Space Station during a flyover Monday night. A great website called Heavens Above gives you charts of major satellites and where in the sky you can see them from your location. The ISS looks like a very bright star moving pretty fast across the sky. There are no blinking lights, so it can’t be an airplane. I did a three-minute shot showing the station streaking across from northwest to northeast from Roosevelt Point, named after Theodore, who helped establish Grand Canyon National Monument, later National Park.

The ponderosa pine.

I wondered how to show the majesty of the ponderosa pine, which thrive on the upper levels of the rim. Just about ready to pack my equipment I found myself under one of the giant trees. Looking straight up towards its crown I could see it silhouetted against the starry sky, the central part of the Milky Way arching behind it. The tree stood alone on the trail and this seemed to be the shot.

Evening light show. (Click on images to enlarge)

What would the Grand Canyon be without sunsets? I think the one on Sunday (appropriately) was above and beyond the ordinary. All of the action really seemed to be happening to the east. A heavy rainstorm could be seen with a short rainbow just to the left of the rain. As the sun descended, the sheets of rain were brightly illuminated as the rainbow persisted. Light on the tops of the rock formations in the canyon receded into shadow. I found it extraordinary to see this combination of weather and light. And all the while we on the Bright Angel Point were dry under pleasant evening sky.

My impression of Ansel Adams.

Here’s another storm over the canyon taken Sunday from the Transept Trail that goes from the cabin to the Grand Lodge. Like the previous popular post, this looked more dramatic in black and white. While it stormed in the distance, the center of the canyon was in bright sun and it was raining over me. I think Ansel Adams and others do a much better job at these landscapes, but I can see why they worked so much in the west.

Pine needles and Milky Way.

The pattern of almost total overcast, followed by clear and tranquil skies continued last night. I concentrated on more of the plant photos, which I’m beginning to enjoy. Oddly enough, for a photographer, I like the out of focus sky. Generally for the night sky pictures I try to make the stars and especially the Milky Way as sharp as possible. But focusing closely on a subject gives an impressionistic feel to the background. The astronomically inclined will see Scorpius with its curving tail to the right and a bright Saturn above the three stars that make up Scorpius’ head. Which means the Milky Way is directly behind the pine needles flowing off to the left, Sagittarius below it. Even the dark lanes of the galaxy are recognizable.

Milky Way rising. (Click on images to enlarge)

When a storm passes through and the sky clears, it really clears. We had the usual afternoon thunderstorms, pretty heavy on Saturday. Usually it’s quite dry, but not this year. Since the canyon is a large black abyss at night without any moon, when the Milky Way rises it’s the sensation of being out in space. The trees and rock formations on the Bright Angel Point make for some interesting shapes. I experimented more with close-ups of plants, which I’ll post later.

Really dark sky.

The GC Star Party, with a tremendous view.

Earlier in the evening the Grand Canyon Star Party got off to a start for the first of eight nights of stargazing. There was a lecture in the Grand Lodge auditorium and several telescopes were set up on the main veranda. The star party happens in June around the full moon, a much larger one runs at the South Rim the same dates. The North Rim party is organized by the Saguaro Astronomy Club from Phoenix and the South Rim by the Tucson Astronomical Society. Dean Ketelson, mentioned in yesterday’s post, was a founder of the South Rim party.

Looking out through the Supai Tunnel

In the morning I hiked a short way down the North Kaibab trail, which leads all the way to Phantom Ranch at the Colorado River. Many hikers start or end on this trail if they are going “rim to rim” or prefer this route to the more crowded South Rim trails. I was planning neither. I hiked about 1.7 miles to the Supai Tunnel, which is a water stop. Along the way I took notes about the best views and what would make good shots at night. Lots of people were doing day hikes and since mules caravans use the trail, one had to dodge mule poop. It was great to see the canyon from another perspective, even though I didn’t go very far.

The summer triangle and a greenish glow from Point Imperial. (Click on photos to enlarge)

On these trips I usually scout out good viewpoints during the day to check which part of the sky I can see (north, south, east or west) and to see what’s there– level or rough ground, railings or no railings, is there a trail to the view, etc. Point Imperial, 8 miles east of the cabin was promising. At 8,803 feet, the highest point in the park, it was a truly panoramic view of the canyon and the surrounding high desert. Good views to the southeast potentially would produce nice photos of the Milky Way rising over the canyon. I returned at night to see a string of lights stretching from the north to the south along the horizon. The point is so high you can see the lights of Arizona towns many miles away. In the photo above you can see the glow from Page on the left, from the Gap and Tuba City to the left of the pine tree and assorted small settlements on the right. Very disappointing if you are trying to capture the natural landscape and the sky without any artificial lights.

But there are lots of thing going on in this photo. Glow from artificial lights are reflected off low clouds. You can see the Summer Triangle, three stars: Deneb, Vega and Altair just above and to the right of the small pine. Deneb and Altair form the base of a triangle with bright Vega at top. There is some greenish glow to the right of the pine tree, I keep thinking it’s a rare sighting of an aurora. My friend Dean Ketelson reminded me earlier there is something called sky glow, which I think is ionized gasses producing a greenish glow that digital cameras can pick up. I kept the color in the photo since it looks so eerie. Part of the summer Milky Way escapes the clouds and arches to the right.

Inside my cabin.

Finally got some photos of the cabin after I tidied up. This is a super-wide fisheye view from the front door of the ‘main’ room, which is a work room and kitchen. The big logs that make up the building are great. Through the door in the center is the bedroom and a bathroom is to the left as you go in the door. Lots of nice light and generally quiet.

The Big Dipper, Arcturus and Spica.

Here’s another shot from Friday night showing the Big Dipper’s familiar shape and it’s handle pointing to the giant red star Arcturus (“arc to Arcturus” is how people remember) and bright Spica on the left. A thin haze left from a passing storm causes these bright stars to really stand out from the countless number that usually show up in pictures.

Big storm in the distance.