Big Bend Winter 2010

Just before Christmas, Evan and I went on a trip to Big Bend National Park. This was our first camping trip together, and it was an awesome trip. We went with the intent to do some camping, hiking, photography and to see the stars. We did all of this. Originally we intended to stay for a 4 day, 3 night duration, but due to illness we ended up leaving a day early. This doesn't bother me at all, because we got to see so much and I know that we will be back. I now have an understanding of what is there, and I can better plan and prepare for the environment for when I return.
As we were planning the trip, I found a Google Maps mash-up that overlays the light pollution on to the map, and I tried to find the darkest sky I could find. Big Bend National Park has one of the darkest skies in the continental US, and it's not too far of a drive from Austin. It ended up that we had picked the days, and booked the campsite before I realized that the lunar eclipse was going to be happening while we were there, which was a huge bonus for me. My boss loaned me his telescope, so on the night of the eclipse I setup the telescope and my tripod with my Hasselblad in the empty campsite across the road, and stayed up until the moon had completely moved behind the earth's shadow. I didn't stay up the other hour of the full eclipse, or the hour following that of the moon moving back out of the shadow, because I was anticipating a long drive the next day. Also it was cold. We were somewhere around 5500 feet in altitude, and it was a crisp clear desert night. I think the temperature was in the upper 30s that night. Which really isn't bad considering it was in the lower 70s during the days. Despite the cold, I did get to do a bit of astro-photography, which was incredibly awesome. Here is a link to the photos I took and posted to my flickr account, below are some of my favorite shots from the trip, though I still have one roll of film to finish and develop.