Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park’s “The Mittens” silhouetted under the August Milky Way. Composite image created from two frames. Milky Way image made the previous evening outside of Page, Arizona.

Made on a week-long car trip through Nevada, Utah and Arizona. August 2010.

Brown pelican diving for Pacific Ocean fish at Stinson Beach, Marin County, California. July-August 2010.

The summer Milky Way in the Northern Hemisphere including the Lagoon Nebula, Scorpius Jewel Box and the Rho Oph nebula. Single frame processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. Image made using a modified Canon 40D with a 17-35mm lens on an Astrotrac TT320X polar mount. Seen from New Mexico Skies.

The magnificent summer sky’s Milky Way, seen from Elephant Butte State Park, New Mexico. Had to leave when I realized I was in the middle of three different packs of coyotes howling from a distancr at 2 AM. They may have been far, but being triangulated made me feel like prey.

A sky full of stars over the Pacific Ocean seen from Stinson Beach during Memorial Day weekend, May 2010.

Sunset after a February storm, seen from the Berkeley Hills looking toward San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. HDR image captured while the time-lapse camera setup was clicking away.

This image is reminiscent of one from last year from same spot at same time. As these storms clear I’ll be looking for more broken cloud imagery from interesting places.

Feb. 9, 2010.

Clouds part as they cross the Golden Gate, providing a silver lining to the spate of storms that have run across Northern California in the last week.

This is an HDR image made using three frames, bracketed +-2 EV, and composited in Photomatix.

Muir Woods on a foggy morning in January, 2010.

When the Northridge earthquake cut power in Los Angeles in 1994, Angelenos were stunned to see the night sky without any light pollution. Alarmed callers to 911 wondered if the cloud in the sky had caused the earthquake. For weeks, many refused to believe that the sight of the Orion nebula in the sky was the actual night view without electric lights drowning out the view.

On a recent ski trip to Kirkwood ski resort in the Sierra mountains of California, I made photos on two clear nights from Highway 88. This one shows the Milky Way, among other features. If you click through to Flickr, and view a larger version of the image you’ll note there is at least one additional galaxy clearly visible in the upper left.

I was deeply, deeply moved by the sight of thousands of visible stars in the sky. For me their sight snapped into perspective my place in the universe. It was simply amazing to feel connected to such a vast realm. I found it hard to comprehend the vastness on its own. Framing it with familiar trees helped ground me from the sensation of flying free in space. And time.

I highly recommend night sky awareness to all city-folk. Next time you’re speeding down a lonely highway on a clear dark night, pull over and shut off all of the car’s lights. Step outside and let your night vision acclimate and let the wondrous sights unfold. It’s worth it.