Night Light of the North Coast: Milky Way Over Kneeland Snow

Post by David Wilson

I was in a place of perfect, dreamlike comfort and warmth, sitting within a misty sunsplash pooling on the redwood forest floor, the sun shining in rays through the giant trees. The deep quiet of the redwoods enclosed me, protected me. Enwombed me. If one could possibly be a feeling of warmth and fuzziness, I would have been at that moment. I could have stayed forever…

Except the sound of Doctor McCoy’s medical scanner was intruding. It peeled away the warmth and glow, pulled back the mists and redwoods. My world tottered, and then it was dark. I was in bed. And I was tired. I reached for the phone and shut off the med scanner alarm.

03:30, read my phone, and it was time to get up and go take my first Milky Way photograph of the year. Except it was so very early, and I was so very tired. And dreamland’s paradise of moments before still beckoned.

But a voice said to me from inside, “If you don’t go out, you won’t bring anything back.”

But sometimes a body needs to sleep!” I cried.

Well, if you don’t go out, you won’t bring anything back.”

You always say that,” I said. But I got up.

Thus Milky Way season began for me on February 21, 2018 this year.

It had snowed the previous couple of nights in the hills around Kneeland east of Humboldt Bay. The chance to catch the Milky Way over a snowy Humboldt panorama was too much to resist. At that time of year the Galactic Core of the Milky Way is only visible before dawn, and I knew that its best visibility would be after 04:00 the next morning. I had in mind a place where I could catch it arcing over the snowy hillside and country road near the Kneeland Airport.

I had been to that spot in December to take some nighttime photographs with my son, and from that visit I saw that later in the year it would be the perfect place to see the Milky Way before dawn began brightening the east. The Milky Way would be rising at a low angle close above the horizon in those wee hours, and my memory of the spot put it right above the road where it makes that turn you see in the panorama. My weather site said there would be a little new snow during the night to add to that which remained from the previous days, but that by 04:00 sky cover would be less than forty percent.

When I arrived I was presented with another of the beautiful photographic opportunities so often given me, for which I am eternally grateful. The sky was virtually cloudless, and the Milky Way rose in the southeast, a luminous band stretching low across the sky to the northern horizon. My first Milky Way sighting of the year was right where I thought it would be. A thin dusting of the night’s new snow lay on the road.

In the scenic panorama, the view extends from the southeast on the right side to the northwest on the left side, about a 180º field of view. Beneath the Milky Way, the orange glow up the road and over the hill radiates from the Kneeland Airport. As your eye continues to the left it passes Blue Lake’s blue glow to the north, and then further left is the warm luminance from McKinleyville and Arcata. Eureka was just out of view to the left.

After making the panorama, I couldn’t resist taking another couple of photos that included me in them just for fun; self portraits. Why do photographers do that? I don’t know, but it gave me a chance to play with my headlamp and do some light painting in a few photographs. It was fun. But would you guess that it can also be lonely? It isn’t always, but it can be dreadfully so. Fortunately I have family and friends who will come out with me. I am grateful for them. (Thank you, guys!) Naturally, though, I want to go out a lot more than they do as a group, and I will either find myself out there alone or sitting inside, aching to be out there.

Where we live, the warm summer months are the best time of the year to catch the core of the Milky Way high in the sky soon after dark. The core is that densest, most detailed portion of the Milky Way. As winter approaches, Earth’s night side begins facing further and further from the core, until during the shortest days of the year only the weakest vestiges of the Milky Way remain in sight. Then, as spring and summer approach, Earth’s orbit will again bring us into position for our night side to face the best part of the Milky way.

To see previous entries of “Night Light of the North Coast,” click on my name above the article. If you’d like to keep abreast of my most current photography or peer into its past, you can follow me on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx . I update my website mindscapefx.com less frequently.

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Hick
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Hick
5 years ago

Klatou nikto Bardota.

Hick
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Hick
5 years ago

What happened to the option?

Hick
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Hick
5 years ago

Edit option!

David Wilson
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David Wilson
5 years ago

It’s ok, I know what you mean!

Klaatu barada nikto. 🖖
😹

Jnetta
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Jnetta
5 years ago

💗💗💗✨✨✨

KIDDZZ
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KIDDZZ
5 years ago

Rad, as always!

wildman
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wildman
5 years ago

Love your work David. Always have. Still use one of your photos for my desktop background, and still get comments about your photo of me on the album Fresh Tracks of a Wildman. Of course mostly they just want to know who the hunk is in the photo. ;>)

David Wilson
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David Wilson
5 years ago
Reply to  wildman

Hey, Wildman! Too funny 😂 Now *that* was back in the day. I remember that snow day well, and the Wildman’s fresh tracks. And the Wildman himself, of course. Very good times.

wildman
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wildman
5 years ago
Reply to  David Wilson

Yeah, I miss them too. Wild and crazy. Good to still see you photographing life.

Hick
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Hick
5 years ago

Thanks

Wow
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Wow
5 years ago

Awesome! There is a spot on Bell Springs I always wanted to take a Milky Way Photo. You have inspired me to try harder! Thank you!

Troy
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Troy
5 years ago

When is the next one?