Today's Image

Moonlit night in Yosemite

Rainbow over a rocky waterfall with star trails in night sky above.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Image via Fred Walder.

Fred Walder captured this image on June 17, 2019, in California’s Yosemite National Park. Fred wrote:

In the spring around the nights of the full moon when the snow is melting in the mountains, it is possible to see rainbows at night in the mist of waterfalls in Yosemite National Park. These lunar rainbows, to the camera, look like the ones produced by sunlight during the days that are visible to our eyes.

This image was taken during the June full moon at lower Yosemite Falls. It is a combination of 25 x 30-second images to provide the equivalent of 12 1/2 minutes of exposure to show the stars circling the north pole. The camera lens needed to be wiped dry between shots due to the large amount of mist at the base of the waterfall, so the star trails wiggle a little as this moved the camera a bit … I find it really cool that the light of the full moon can produce this rich color at night.

You can see the equipment Fred used for the photo, and post-processing details, here.

Thank you, Fred!

Posted 
June 27, 2019
 in 
Today's Image

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