Stunning Death Valley 'Dreamlapse'

By Nancy Atkinson - January 21, 2013 at 1:32 PM UTC | Observing
sdream6.jpg

Here's yet another gorgeous timelapse from Gavin Heffernan and his team. As we previewed in our

Geminid Meteor Shower post

, the Sunchaser Pictures team trekked to the world-famous Eureka Dunes in Death Valley National Park to search for some of the darkest skies on Earth during the meteor shower peak on the night of December 13th, 2012. They braved a long journey, a tough climb cold temperatures.

"But it was all worth it when the skies cleared and showed us an incredible galactic palette!" Gavin writes on

Vimeo

.

In addition to Geminids, there are star trails, planets and a weird spiraling object at about 1:30-1:35. It makes three broad circular sweeps over the desert – although in timelapse it appears to be moving fast, but the 5 seconds of time in timelapse equals about 50 minutes, so it's actually not moving all that fast. It can also be seen cutting through the circular star trails picture below. There's another 25-second exposure that of the object moving that makes it look almost like a colored rope.

"I don't think that 'rope' look is unusual for a normal plane etc.," Gavin told Universe Today via email. "The circular motion, and very slow movement are what really make it interesting/unusual. It's definitely worth noting that the site is definitely near some kind of military installation or air force base, because we saw the spectacular sight of F-16 fighter planes zooming over the dunes, not too far off the ground. I know for sure it wasn't a helicopter, because we would have heard it."

Shots from the timelapse:

[caption id="attachment_99541" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption ="Star trails from 'Death Valley Dreamlapse." Credit: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures."]

Star trails from 'Death Valley Dreamlapse.

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[caption id="attachment_99543" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption = "A 25 second exposure of an object flying through the field of view. Credit: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures."]

A close-up, 25 second exposure of an object flying through the field of view. Credit: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.

[/caption]

DEATH VALLEY DREAMLAPSE from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com