Night in the Mojave Desert

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It is a nearly full moon night in the Mojave Desert near Landers (CA) and I decided to see what kind of photo I could get using my Phantom 3. Tonight's image was taken at about 60 feet up, looking to the northeast, from the Center for Solar System Studies. It is a five second exposure (which ought to tell you something about what a stable aerial platform the Phantom is). In the distance is Goat Mountain, and over it, the handle of the Big Dipper. For the astronomically minded, you should know that in the original resolution of the image, Alcor and Mizar (a visual double) were cleanly split.

Astro-Phantom-Landers.jpg
 
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Nice exposure. What's with the lights at the place across the road ? Appears a little insensitive to those studying the solar system. Dark skies are getting harder to find, even in the Mojave desert it seems.
 
Thanks for the compliment. All things considered, the neighbor's lights are not a major bother - they are low intensity and not much of the energy goes up into the air. The observatories are about 500 feet away and shielded by an intervening building.
 

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