Time: 2345
Location:
Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge, NC
Weather:
12°C
Partly Cloudy
WSW wind 1 mph gusting to 6 mph
59% Relative Humidity
1013.5 millibars
0 precipitation
Solo night photography trip to dark site in the Great Dismal Swap Wildlife Refuge.
Personal Thoughts
Got to site and started shoot almost immediately. The outing tonight provided some great shots for my first time using this new lens for night photography. I did not expect to get some of the shots that I did, nor did I expect to see the moon so clearly and with such detail. It literally left me awestruck for the majority of the drive home.
One thing I kept thinking to myself was how important it is that we as a society start working to address light pollution and protect our dark sites. The place I took these photos at is roughly 45 minutes from my home. Even this far away, and putting a massive and major wildlife refuge between myself and the nearest city the site is still only between a class 4 and class 3 on the Bortle scale. Even then I have to contest with traffic. While the traffic in the middle of the night on that rural road is relatively low, one semi-truck with it's high beams on will completely reset my night vision for several minutes, which makes all the difference when you are trying to locate and see the Milky Way with the naked eye.
What is crazy is that even 45 minutes away that sky is still incredibly bright from light pollution. To find any darker skies would require a drive almost a 1-2 hours away to parts of the Outer Banks or Eastern Shore. Even more crazy is that light pollution is increasing by 9.6% each year, and that within only a few short years there will be next to no remaining dark sites on the eastern United States. There are so many places we need to make major changes to reverse the damage that human pollution has causes, but this is one seldom talked about outside the photography and astronomy communities.
For more reading on the subject check out these sources that referenced in this article:
Collections Notes
Below are a few of the shots for this outing. If you would like to purchase a print of any of these please email us at Wonderbounded@gmail.com a portion of all proceeds will be donated to the International Dark Skies Society.
Check out the music bellow for your next stargazing adventure
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