Milky Way from the Apache Trail

First Water Creek Bridge

Last Sunday morning, I travelled east of Phoenix along Route 88, the Apache Trail. I was accompanied by Alex Skoczen, in search of good site to photograph the Milky Way. We found a good location just short of the small settlement of Tortilla Flat, where the road crosses First Water Creek which flows into Canyon Lake, on the left side of the bridge.

We settled in to await the emergence of the galactic centre above the mountain you see in the background. Our patience was rewarded when the galactic centre rose above the peak at 3:56 am.

It was very dark. The foreground, including the bridge were not visible to the naked eye. We illuminated the area using a flashlight, a practice termed “light painting” to expose the bridge, the highway and the flowers in the foreground.

I used a lens that I acquired a few years ago expressly for night photography. This lens’ maximum aperture, f/1.4 enables me to capture a lot of light in a short period of time. I used a moderate level of sensor sensitivity, ISO 1600 to further enhance the light capture. The exposure time was 15 seconds, sufficient to expose the scene while not “streaking” the stars. A longer exposure can be enough to stretch pinpoints of light (the stars) due to the rotation of the earth (and the camera with it).

We called it a day (night?) shortly after 4:00 am and I got home in time to go back to bed by 6:00 am. It was a beautiful night to be out and we were both pleased with the results of our efforts.