Eyes on the Water and the Sky

Hello again friends,

Twice in one week! It’s summer and things are heating up here on the Hood Canal.

Earlier this week, I share my weekend Milky Way excursion with you. Today, I took a look at 30 minutes of the aurora borealis that I photographed around 1:30 am on June 11th. I made a short timelapse video from my photos that night, but spent the 11th packing for our weekend camping trip, and just now had some time to spend with the images.

Lo and behold, I captured bioluminescence, sparkling blue light caused by algal disturbance in salt water, which I just heard about last year, and have not yet seen in person – I confess I was getting ready for bed while my camera was snapping away. But now I have photographed the phenomenon, thanks to a critter, most likely a seal, but possibly an otter, swimming through the still water, causing it to spark blue. I cropped and shortened my original 15 second timelapse to show more clearly the path the animal made through the water. Here’s 3 seconds of fun:

And here’s a still with the last splash of blue at the bottom of the frame. The water is pink because of the aurora reflection.

Check out the Seattle Child blog if you’re curious about bioluminescence in the Puget Sound.

Here’s six seconds of the aurora with pillars:

And a meteor coursing through the sky during the display:

What a packed half-hour!

—

And there was more fun this week.

Around 10:30 Tuesday night, the 6% crescent moon and Venus were sparkling in the sky.

Once a had the image, I set up my camera to take a photo every minute until the moon slipped behind the mountains. I combined the photos to make this image of the moon and Venus on their paths. I discarded half the shots so in image, is a combo of frames taken every two minutes in order to see most of the moon.

And just in case you thought I only took photos at night: I keep my camera on the kitchen counter and always have my eyes on the water when I’m home. This morning an eagle stood on the oyster bed closest to the house just chilling while I slipped onto the deck and photographed it. The water was so still and clear that when the eagle took off, it looked to me as though it was swimming under water rather than flying!

And while I’m sharing the best of the week, I’ll leave you with my favorite daylight image from the weekend trip: Mt. Rainier, heavily cropped, and taken through the windshield of my husband’s truck while at a stop light in Yelm on the way to Alder Lake. You never know where opportunity awaits!