Stunning, Majestic New Timelapse from King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

By Nancy Atkinson - August 4, 2014 at 10:40 AM UTC | Observing
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Shooting the night sky from an area filled with canyons and towering trees might sound like a challenge, but Gavin Heffernan and his crew at

Sunchaser Pictures

have "majestically" succeeded with this new timelapse from Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks in California. They spent three days and two nights around the summer solstice, covering the 1,353 square miles of the two parks. They captured gorgeous night sky views, star trails, bright meteor streaks, and satellite passes -- all framed by the magnificent landscape of the area.

"It was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, with incredible canyons, mountains, and vistas out of a fantasy novel," Gavin told UT via email. "Far removed from any light pollution, the skies were equally stunning, with some epic milky ways, star trails, and the brightest meteor picture I've ever captured." Image above -- and see the new timelapse video below, with the meteor trails coming at 1:41 & 2:26:

Gavin said most night shots were captured with 25 second exposures on two Canon EOS 6D's with a variety of wide, fast lenses, including a 24mm f1/4 and 28mm f1/8. The stunning star trails effect is created by tracing rotations of the Earth's axis, using long exposures.

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Star trails at dawn just as the Sun rises above the mountains in Kings Canyon. Credit and copyright: Gavin Heffernan. [/caption]

Find out more about this video on

Vimeo

and you can watch a "behind the scenes" video of what it took to make this video -- including an encounter with a brown bear! --

here.

KINGS 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