Stunning New Timelapse: Storms and Stars at Joshua Tree

By Nancy Atkinson - November 19, 2012 at 2:55 PM UTC | Stars

Here's another gorgeous timelapse by

Gavin Heffernan

, who returned to

Joshua Tree National Park

in California for his third look at the incredible night sky. "It was an epic night," Gavin told UT, "with storms at first, then some of the clearest skies I've ever seen."

The sky is ablaze with activity; the rolling storm, the Milky Way in all its glory, plus meteors, satellites and aircraft passing overhead. Gavin and his Sunchaser Pictures team shot the footage with a Canon 7D and Canon 5D, with a 24mm/1.4 lens and a 28mm/1.8. Most intervals are 25 seconds, except the 1st, which is 30 second, Gavin said.

If you like this one, take a look at Gavin's

first

and

second

visits to Joshua Tree, too.

JOSHUA TREE JOURNEY 3: STORM from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.

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