Night Scenes: The all - encompassing night photo subjects thread

April 28, 2022

We have dedicated, master threads for Cloud Photos, Rainbows, Garden Visitors / Sunsets / Sunrises here ..But, ..where is a master Night Photography thread?     ..Think it is time for one..

Palms included in the shots ..or not..   Post your night shots..    In the city, ..or out in the woods..   post em'     From somewhere near home, or taken while on vacation thousands of miles away ..post em'

You get the picture.. Now get snapping.

Nothing award winning, but testing out the camera last night, was fairly satisfied w/ some of the test shots..   Shots of the Moon ( Solar Eclipse on the 15th of May, btw ) and lightning shots to come this summer will be the real test. On this specific camera, i'm only able to go up to a 15 second exposure.. Good enough, for now. Testing video image quality later.

Out front, facing east:

W/ more traffic

Later, once most of the traffic has subsided for the night..

Out back:

Facing west, near total darkness ( in - city standards ). No direct light from the street lights out front / others.

Testing the zoom on the Palms next door

...And out front, from over the roof..

Not too bad..

April 28, 2022

My daughter spotted this and snapped a pic last night. Owl posted up on our blackberry trellis.

April 30, 2022

September 2015 “Blood Moon” taken at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
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May 5, 2022

To everyone across the Galaxy, ..May the 4th ..be with you.

More interstellar fun later..

May 16, 2022

How bout tonight's Lunar Eclipse?.. Share if you were able to capture your own shots tonight. Fought a tripod that decided to shed a leg ( Clasp that holds the leg in place when you extend it to x length has been on it's way out for awhile ) , some clouds, ...and forgetting to charge the battery earlier.. Had to take a couple breaks from filming to charge the battery just enough to photograph the entire event. Kind of screwed w/ being able to focus correctly at times.

On a side note ..a touch envious.. Would have loved to been down in Tucson tonight. Smashing Pumpkins was playing at an open air Amphitheater on the southwest side of town, well away from most city- generated light pollution.. What a show that must have been..

Start to finish..

A couple late night bonus shots..

May 16, 2022

Nothing here as the sky was full of clouds.......

June 5, 2022

New month, New Moon.. Ok, haha ..Almost new.

Week ahead could be interesting in regards to night time shots w/ the waxing June moon and passing subtropical cloud cover at the same time..

June 14, 2022

Strawberry full Moon

Random.

Turning on the sun for a moment, Scouted out a new vantage point this morning. 1 of 2 that are easiest to get to from the house, but a little closer to open desert / have a little more open space mixed in among all the new homes, etc here to ( hopefully ) lessen light pollution. There are a couple other spots just beyond city limits on this side of town i may venture out to through the summer as well.

While definitely a better view, than a flat view, Do wish this hill sat another 40-70ft higher so that the large transmission lines that cut across the view to the south were a bit lower than the horizon line.. Regardless, should be a great spot.. Now to get the storms cranking..

4 peaks/ Mazatzal Mountains, wide view..

West front of the Superstitions..

San Tans / San Tan Mountain

Facing west toward South Mountain / The Estrella Wilderness/ Mountains..

Northern view. Would be looking over Scottsdale / mountains visible in that direction...

Zoomed in view of a factory that manufactures Oxygen for Hospitals nearby. Interesting terrain perspective in this shot as well.. From the view at the house, everything in all directions looks flat. From here, can see the slope that defines neighborhoods that sit below the south-facing side of South Mountain / west Chandler.

Zoomed in view of 4 Peaks / Brown's Peak / Mazatzal Mountains northeast of town.

July 5, 2022

How 'bout some Fireworks.. The man- made kind.. As thought, nature decided to bypass the area this evening. Good show regardless.

Chandler canceled their show this year due to supply issues but went ahead w/ a 4th of July celebration downtown. Had they been able to shoot 'em off this year, Downtown is approx 4 miles from where i was at, so the show would've been higher in the sky. So often, the city holds the show at another popular park about a mile north of my vantage point... Even better

Main show pictured is from Gilbert Regional Park, roughly 6 miles east of my vantage point. Had to zoom out to get the show in view.

No doubt, if -or when- Monsoon stuff returns ( Looking like storm activity is taking a week long vacation across 90% of the state ), this is going to be the sweet spot whenever early evening storms roll through..

Anyway,..

Wide view shots..

A few nearby neighborhood sparks..

The main show, off in the distance. Only negative was the camera decided to loose focus on the show ..right at the very end.. Go figure, lol.

August 12, 2022

Final Supermoon of the summer, and the year:

October 6, 2022

Horrible shots, yes ...but happy enough to have the opportunity to observe it.. If clear the next couple nights, might try for a couple more ( Not expecting better quality w/ this camera though )

Jupiter at it's closest approach to Earth back on the 26th of last month. Can see 4 of the 5 moons as well. Maybe if i'm alive in 100++ years when it makes the next close approach i can get better shots, hahaha🤣

Perfect examples of patience.. Small, high - based storm that was only slightly cooperative late last night. Mainly inter-cloud / cloud to cloud stuff, w/ few bolts / visible channels. One of those storms where the majority of brief thunder claps sounded like someone driving over rocks, or crumpling paper, even though the core of the storm generating the electricity is pretty much overhead. No rain at the house ..again, lol.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Silas_Sancona
edit

October 7, 2022

October 21, 2022

Possibly the last lightning-related shots of the year...

October 28, 2022

A special, just past sunset treat in the sky from the space geeks at Vandenburg AFB ..I'm sure certain " folks " were freaking out over the lights in the sky.

Maybe the next launch will be Elon's one way ticket to Mars, ...Accompanied by the crazy shoe dude,🤣 ..One can always hope

November 8, 2022

A late night in November, this time awaiting an Eclipse, rather than more lightning ( Though both occurring at the same time, twice in one year would be pretty sweet, haha )

Last total Lunar Eclipse visible from the U.S. / Western U.S. until March 13-14th, 2025. Will be another in '26 as well. After that? Gonna have to wait until 2033 or 2048 for the next total eclipse events.

Because totality peaked at 3:59AM local time, did not stay up long enough to catch the waning portion of the event.

Well worth loosing a few hours of sleep to capture a few decent shots under a perfectly clear and crisp autumnal sky.

January 19

Royal Palms at Night in Fort Myers FL 01/25/22

One of my favorite memories was lounging in the jacuzzi on a balmy winter night in South Florida watching the royal palms dance and listening to Everybody wants to rule the world play softly in the background. Can't ask for much more. 🌴🦩

February 1

February 1

March 6

Two beauties at Twilight..

March 21

March 29

Southwest Florida winter night. 02/22/23 Great to be back 🌴

Edited March 29 by Joe The Palm
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May 23

On 3/29/2023 at 12:19 AM, Joe The Palm said:

Southwest Florida winter night. 02/22/23 Great to be back 🌴

May 23

wow!

June 6

Three nights of Strawberry Moon Satin, and the Stars..

Acacia Eclipse...

Scorpious rising..

Venus...

Hello Moon...

June 22

More starry skies.. This time, a rare celestial event, and a couple Constellations..

Venus, Mars, and a waxing Crescent Moon Conjunction on the 48 hour window straddling the Astro. Summer Solstice.. Missed it? Well, start looking up .. Next similar Conjunction won't occur until September 15th, 2028.

June 20th

Prime time ( last night / J- 21st ).. All three will be visible tonight ( will add later ) but aligned differently, similar to how they ere on the 20th ..Moon will be near the Sickle portion of the Constellation of Leo, near the star, Regulus.

Big Dippah'

Scorpius 🦂

Random starry skies w/ Scorpius rising toward the lower left side of the picture ( above the Mulberry )..

July 5

Nothing like Venus, and some real Fireworks on the 4th.. Storms in the area is about the only thing that would make the evening perfect.. Maybe next year.

July 27

A few of the better bolts from last night.. Missed a couple others that were closer. While the light show itself was good, storms were a bit stingy w/ the Clear Air Bolts ( C.A.B.s as they are sometimes referred to as )

July 28

Before the bolts, a nighttime wall of dust lurking on the horizon...

August 3

More bolts ..and the August Supermoon #1 ( Two this month )

Not bad.. but a few more " bolt-y ", long-lived storms would be great.. Goal is an energetic, bolt - spitting storm of similar distance from my POV where the cloud base is just above the tops of the Washingtonia in the street island. ..Just close enough to get the bolts elevated up above the roof / treeline, but just far enough away that it isn't raining overhead, nor said electricty isn't trying to stab me, lol..

This one would've been decent, ...if it weren't for interference from the dang streetlight.. Have considered setting up in the island to try and get around that obstacle. If only the street lights had light switches, lol.

Last storm came close, but was fizzling out as it got to the goal line, thus, just cloud crawlers..

Supermoon Rising, Pt.1..

August 23

More electricity ..and a Crescent Moon

..ok..

That's more like it..

Moon

September 13

Storms in the area? ..= another late night.

Have to say, these may be some of the best shots of distant storms surrounded by clear skies i've captured to date.

Particular area of storms to my N.E. is likely responsible for all the wind / damage reports out of Mesa overnight / this morning.. Rolled across town from west of PHX pretty quickly, until slowing down considerably and greatly intensifying as it reached this area..

Non-stop lightning -of every possible color, + a powerful, steeply sloped updraft, with some hints of mid level rotation are obvious hallmarks of Supercell-type storms. In this case however, this cluster of storms was running up into the foothills as it reached peak intensity, thus, any potential for classic supercell-related organization, IE: What you'd see if occurring over a large, relatively flat area like the Plains = large, rotating wall cloud structure, and funnel cloud / tornado formation is diminished ..though it can still occur as storms of such strength head up into the mountains.

That said, storms like this often generate extreme downbust wind events below them as the down drafting section of the storm brings a lot of energy / cold air down from the upper atmosphere / top of the storm. Hadn't heard of any, but would not be surprised to hear reports of large hail occurring as this storm went ballistic also.

If i could have, i would have liked to be somewhere further removed from the extra light pollution of street / car lights since storms like this are great for spotting ...and getting shots of... TLE's, aka: Transient Luminous Events ( Also referred to as UAL ( E ) ~ Upper Atmosphere Lightning ( Events )) Which include such weird things as Red Jets / Blue Sprites, Elves, and Upward Superbolts, etc

Wiki- related Screen grab of a diagram w/ various TLE / UAL (E) types:

Maybe next year..

Primary storm, caught while headed east over Mesa

Not as crisp as i'd like, but did manage to capture my first Upward Superbolt in this second storm rolling east just to my south though.. If only this kind of pattern occurred once or twice a month, all year here, lol