When you gaze into the clear night sky, the perception is there is darkness and only pinpoints of light. But when you take photographs of the night sky, a fundamental truth is revealed: It’s mostly light. So much light!
I regularly set up my tripod and camera and program my remote to continuously fire 10 to 20 second shots until my battery runs out, I’m too cold to continue, or clouds arrive. By doing this with the correct exposure, I capture the rotation of the Earth. It appears as star trails…and planet trails…when I stack those images in Photoshop. Streams of light are the reality!
Even though life can seem really dark, when we look closely those pinpoints of light, glowing in so many hearts, they become like fireworks of love all over the planet.
When I stand under the firmament and gaze into the heavens, my life is changed for the better. Every. Single. Time.
Don’t think that because it looks dark, all is lost. Light is growing and continues to grow as we open our hearts and allow our lights to shine.
We often hear to be grateful and to state our gratitude by saying thank you. In my contemplation this morning, I heard to add something to that statement of gratitude that will help me be more mindful and will show me another side to gratitude.
When I feel gratitude for something, add a statement that acknowledges and identifies what I am receiving and then add that I am grateful for it. For instance, “I receive the love of my friends through their invitation to Thanksgiving dinner and I am grateful,” or “I receive the light-up stocking caps and the care from my friends and I am grateful.” The idea is to recognize what I am receiving before simply saying thank you.
By stating that I am receiving something, it helps me be more mindful and shows how abundantly I am loved by friends, family, the Universe. It’s easy to say I’m grateful for this or that, but when I state that I am receiving something, it amplifies the gratitude. And I’m not saying I’ll do this out in public (but who knows) but rather make it a personal practice.
Stating that I receive something opens me to receive it on a deeper level and therefore deepens my gratitude.
“I receive electricity because someone is monitoring its production so families are warm…and I am grateful.”
“I receive a phone call from my daughter because she cares about me…and I am grateful.”
“I receive a hug from my hound because he loves me…and I am grateful.”
“I receive an order for my books because my friend loves me and supports my work…and I am grateful.”
“I receive the beauty of these mountains…and I am grateful.”
“I receive the beauty of the stars…and I am grateful.”
“I receive the bounty of the Universe…and I am grateful.”
Recognizing and naming what I am receiving helps me see…opens me…expands my awareness of the bounty of my life. I receive this bounty and I am deeply grateful.
As I laid on Earth, looking at the vast sky filled with stars, I realized it was the first time in my star gazing outings over the past year that I wasn’t monitoring equipment. I was taking in the beauty without distractions. Literally…breathing in the starlight, exhaling into Earth. Breathing in the sparkling meteors, exhaling gratitude into Earth. I was grateful my equipment was safely stowed so I could be present with life.
It was also the first night I had used only one piece of equipment. Usually, I have the SeeStar telescope imaging some galaxy or star cluster, my camera taking star trail images, and my iPhone on a little tripod taking images. All of this while ‘enjoying’ the beauty. And I absolutely love creating images…that’s my joy. But last night, I was trying a new piece of equipment I bought many months ago but hadn’t had an opportunity to use due to heavy cloud cover for so many months and then I’d forgotten how to assemble it and didn’t want to bother.
But I bothered last night and I’m in awe of what adding a star tracker can do to increase exposure time for astrophotography. And let me just say this: I love to play with camera gear…under starlight, underwater, with waterfalls, forests, wildlife. I simply love to play. With cameras. And light. And shapes. And sparkly shiny beings light years away. But sometimes it’s magical to remember why I am so passionate about photography and just be bathed in the beauty I’m trying to capture and share.
Three of us gathered for the Leonid meteor shower, for fast-moving meteors and fireballs, debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Our viewing location is generally a madhouse of car lights but last night, we had it almost to ourselves. Peaceful, calm, cold and one fireball that was so amazing I yelled, Bravo!!, after its sparkling self evaporated above our heads. There were others…one incredibly fast faint one, other smaller ones, and one I didn’t see with my eyes but my camera captured it!
Even though there were clouds for a few hours, they added to the beauty of the images. I saw the clouds clearing, but it was getting colder and even with my cocoon of warm clothes, I knew my limit was approaching. As soon as I began disassembling the imaging equipment, the clouds finally gave way. I think their hanging around was my cue to put it all away and lay on Earth for grounding and communion with our planet and to open myself to the beauty of the firmament without distractions…except for the tingle moving up my spine from the cat call…which I swear was a mountain lion’s chirping call. We all heard it so it wasn’t my imagination. (It IS possible at the 5720 foot ‘remote’ location on the parkway…there have been paw print casts made from biologists years ago nearby…and it was not a bobcat).
As I was driving home, down the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then winding down Soco Road toward Cherokee, I thought…This was a great night to be alive! Stars, meteors, mountains…mountain lion? Just WOW!
I used to say I felt more at home underwater than on dry land. Since I haven’t been diving in years, I now say I feel more at home under stars, gazing into the heavens, than I do during daylight hours wandering the planet. Both underwater places and the night sky are experiences of vast space.
Perhaps it’s the expansion of space that calms me. It is those times when I can expand my experience of life into the Infinite that call me into the cold nights of the mountains…where I can unfold and feel the touch of the Universe within my heart and know the immensity of my own soul and how it is part of Oneness.
There’s a book written on awe and how good it is for us to experience it. Tonight, I left the comfort and warmth of my bed after 10pm because I checked the KP index and it was 9…which is very high and is good news for aurora lovers. I put on snow pants, my big down jacket and grabbed my iPhone. I peeked outside and sure enough, there was a faint red glow. So I grabbed my tripod and got a couple nice shots and realized I had to go into the woods with open fields with north facing views. And am I EVER glad I did.
It’s not easy to go out in below freezing temperatures, but to chase dancing colors in the sky, I had to take the chance.
I went to some fields I know on public land and parked beside the road in three different locations and got some great foreground for variety and saw pillars of light as the color and shape changed from moment-to-moment. Elk were EVERYWHERE at the park entrance which added to the magic but made navigation through the herd quite interesting.
No need to carry on and on about the experience. Let me simply say it was worth spending two hours in below freezing temperatures to witness this and capture the beauty…in some small way.
Sometimes it’s so worth leaving my comfort zone to go explore beauty. I highly recommend it.
