The first photo was taken at Bird Island Basin, Padre Island National Sea Shore. Using a new Nikon 200mm F/2 lens on a Nikon D810a camera (full frame/36mp). I was just pointing at the MILKYWAY and by accident captured M8, the LAGOON Nebula. It is a gassous nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. In case you don't know, you are looking dead center, straight down into the center of our own galaxy, called the Milkway. Don't just scan over this photo. Look at the richness of the colors. Your eye cannot see this level of detail while looking at the sky but the digital camera can. If you notice the various shades of color with the outer edges of the Milkway turning redish. There is also red clouds out there that are very faint. Look to the top right, you can just see it. I hope when I go to Terlingua (west Texas) in August I will have a better time capturing these small incremental changes in our sky, but I have to get away from the moisture content in the air first.
PHOTO #2. Taken at the "observation deck" at Malaquite Beach of Padre Island National Sea Shore. MALAQUITE VISTOR CENTER
If you click on the above photo you will see the stars in a larger format. There are literally billions and billions of stars out there. This is our Milkway, but I moved the camera lens further up into the milkway from the first photo with M 20 and M 8 (red gaseous objects.
Sometimes I go to Bird Island Basin, BIRD ISLAND BASIN to photograph. You are still at the National Park, but on the bay side (sound side, for all you east coasters).
One thing I would like to add to this mix is that based on the humidity in the southTexas air, photographing the night sky is not as easy as it seems. The len will fog up due to the excessive humidity, especially on these long exposures (20 seconds +). Plus the moisture content (humidity) adds an additional layer of thickness to the atmosphere. Sometimes photographing the night sky is like photographing through wax paper. Thus, in August 2021, I will start my travels out to Terlingua, Texas (Big Bend) in-order to spend time under the night canopy with maybe 20% humidity. I hope the results will be spectacular?
There will be more photos to follow but for now that is it.
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