The image: Perseid Meteor over Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Once again dealing with a fire smoke-filled atmosphere in CO, I made a game-day decision to depart Great Sand Dunes and head to Taylor Canyon for the peak night of the annual Perseid Meteor shower, and luckily Heidi was game to join me! I had reserved the site 4 months in advance, although being mid-August, not too many dare descend and camp on the White Rim this time of year due to the heat. We saw no one.
After nearly 10 hours of driving from Great Sand Dunes we arrived around sunset, and I quickly tried to gather my wits/equipment for the 1.5 mile hike to a spot beneath Moses & Zeus that I’d been anticipating since my first trip to Taylor in June of 2017. My last trip here I spent hours finding the best camera angle for capturing meteors behind Aphrodite, and I’ve waited more than a year to be able to attempt to capture the shot I’d envisioned. Several things would have to come together for the shot, none of which I had any control over; namely weather (clouds), air quality (especially re: fire smoke), phase of the moon (perfect this year!), and meteors (frequency and intensity).
Although some unusual low-level moisture hung above Moab (the glow in the image below), when we got up to Aphrodite the air was fairly clear, and you could see the northern part of the Milky Way terminating near Perseus, the general spot in the sky from which Perseid meteors emanate. I got set up on ‘my rock’ as quickly as I could, and started capturing a set of foreground (light) images that would be used during post-processing. Once that was done I started the main sequence, which would run all night until the camera’s batteries died. While Heidi sat in a Helinox chair watching meteors, I proceeded to use various levels and angles of low-level lighting to illuminate the ‘face’ on the cliff wall that I’d waited so patiently to frame. We both happened to witness one exceptional Perseid meteor, which happened to pass behind the pillar of Aphrodite, and fortunately the camera caught it.
Once I had what I needed, we left the tripod-mounted camera, packed up and proceeded to hike along the far side of Moses & Zeus, back to our camp. About five minutes after leaving the camera, all of a sudden we smelled fire smoke! Within about 15 minutes the eastern sky went from nearly clear to a hazed-over greenish color, tamping out any possibility of getting the shot I’d come for.
I’ll be back, in 2019.
