It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. And it is ironical that at times, you need to turn off the lights and thoughts, rather than turn them on - to see beauty like this. I am just a tiny spec on this earth at the given slice of time. The earth in turn is such a tiny speck in the milky way. To top it off the the Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe. When u get to witness the celestial grandeur like these – it brings in an amazing feeling of being extraordinarily special and at the same time wonderfully insignificant. The journey of outside are not very different from that of the inside. At the end all that matters is the search itself :) Let the waters settle and you will see the stars mirrored in your Being. ~Rumi
Sleeping under the stars is an experience unto itself. Add a streak of shooting star and it becomes magical. Perseids meteor shower is one of the consistent ones. Capturing it west coast last year was fun and exhilarating. Equipped with the past experience and learning had been scouting locations and planning for it this year. Unfortunately the weather was not playing along over this particular weekend. Almost all of Illinois was forecasted for gloomy weather and thunderstorms. As I was debating, there was a forecast for Aurora sighting over this past (same) weekend with a level of 5. Both these together made it too tempting to drop the plan. I decided to take my chances with the weather. After lot of deliberation decided to drive up north to for 8 hours. The plan was to get out during the daylight and scout the location as much as possible. Thought it would make it easier to maneuver again during the night, but boy oh boy, could I be any more wrong !!! The pitch black unknown trails were kind of eerie. But once the stars came out it was a totally different world – so serene and tranquil. I am beginning to love the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night :) 45 hours on the road with just few hours of sleep, in search of that one spot to capture the Perseids. The lashing rain, the forecasted aurora that never turned up and the hide and seek with the clouds - it was all fun. Was it all worth it, you bet ! The road trip took me to one of the darkest skies of Mid Western US - Bond Falls. Would like to share with you a moment in time from that night. This was one of the two meteor I was able to capture on frame, but loved how everything came together in this shot. I do love when a plan comes together :) The deafening sound of 500 gallons of water / second from 50 feet The tranquil silence of the dark night Milky way adorning the skies A (Perseids) meteor fireball streaking across the horizon Definitely a moment of serenity and one I would cherish !
Starscapes
