More dunes! Last week’s Picture of the Week featured Orion rising over the dunes, and this week’s features Cygnus setting.  This week’s image features the same filters I discussed in my Cygnus image a couple weeks ago, which you can read about here.  One thing that struck me about visiting the dunes in the early fall was the variety of night sky you could capture there during that time of year.  There are views essentially 360 degrees, and so you’re capturing all sorts of things rising and setting.  It was amazing.  I had hoped, in fact, that I could capture another image of the Milky Way above the dunes, but honestly the image from the spring turned out so well, I didn’t even bother once I got out there.  I did, however, do something a little different.  As Mark and I were exploring around, I happened to turn around to see where he was, only to notice that the Big Dipper was directly above him.  I yelled back to him to stop where he was and don’t move – I’m sure he thought I was crazy, but he noted really liking the image later when I showed it to him.  You can find that below in the Alternative Perspectives section.

This particular trip, Mark and I got to the dunes well ahead of sunset so we could capture the dunes at golden hour.  I want to share those images with you, but I want to wrap up my night images first.  So, I’ll return to the dunes in a few weeks!  More next week from the night!

–Dan Thompson