The Only Light on a Cloudy Night

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The Only Light on a Cloudy Night

Subject: Airplane through tree space
Date: May 21, 1999
Time: ~9:30pm
Location: Provo, UT
Lens: 50mm + Macro
F-stop: 1.7
Exposure time: 12 s
Filters: none
Film: Kodak Max
ISO/ASA: 800

About the Title: After waiting quite some time for the clouds to move so that I could get another picture or two of the stars, I saw an airplane. It was the only light in the entire sky at the moment, so I pointed my camera at it. (The light near the bottom right is from a street lamp.)

One of the constant frustrations for astronomers is clouds. You can plan a long journey to get away from city lights, you can have top-of-the-line equipment, you can have everything ready, but it won't do you any good if there are clouds. I managed to get a few shots of the isosceles triangle (see Isotri and Filial Love), which was the reason I was out that night, but then some clouds rolled in. I waited around, hoping they'd leave (which they didn't) and while I was waiting I saw this airplane. I was reminded of L.A., where I lived most of my life, and where you can expect to see more airplanes than stars on any given night, so I decided to take a picture. I think that the most interesting thing about this picture, by far, is Castor and Pollux (above the right end of the plane trail). They were not visible to me, but the camera managed to pick them up through the cloud. Venus, unfortunately, is behind the tree branches.