Under the inky darkness of night in Southern California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a physics and astronomy professor captured a series of awe-inspiring images of the cosmos.
Herbert W. Hamber from the University of California, Irvine told Nexstar’s KSWB that he heads to the barren wilderness of San Diego County’s northeast desert to photograph galaxies far, far away. He waits until conditions are perfect and then posts up overnight at the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center (SBABDRC) to get his best shots.
“I usually visit the SBABDRC during the middle of the month, when there’s no moon. The moon can be bright enough in other periods, so as to make it nearly impossible to get decent images of faint objects such as nebulas and galaxies,” Hamber explained.
According to the professor, Borrego Springs and the surrounding area is a great place to capture these images because light pollution is minimal. He said this makes faint objects a lot more visible and provides good image contrast.
“There’s some residual light pollution low facing west in the direction of Escondido and north towards Palm Springs,” Hamber continued.
“Going further out in the desert would be even better, but nevertheless quite challenging due to a lack of basic infrastructure — power, wifi, water, beds etc. My observation times usually last four to five nights in a row, weather and clouds permitting.”
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