astro imaging

The State of Astrophotography

Away from the glitz and glamour, savvy amateur astronomers in and around Southern California know where to
find dark, transparent skies.

By Chris Cook

outhern California means

many things to many people.
For amateur astronomers, it is a
mixed bag: a place known for
glitzy lifestyles and rampant light pollution but also a region whose astrophotographers produce some of the most
spectacular images of the night sky. Who
are these astro-artisans, and where are
their secluded stomping grounds? As
well see, Southern Californias best astrophotography sites are as varied as the
skygazers who frequent them.

Mount Pinos
If one name could symbolize the pinnacle of amateur astrophotography, Mount
Pinos would be it. Observers and astrophotographers have been coming to
this temple in the sky since the 1950s. Its
located in the Los Padres National Forest
near the community of Frazier Park,
roughly halfway between Los Angeles
and Bakersfield. Topping out at 8,831
feet (2,692 meters), the mountain is the
highest point in a region where the
Transverse, Tehachapi, and Coast ranges
coalesce. While the true summit is accessible via a rough dirt road, most observers opt to set up in the parking lot
located about 500 feet below the summit.
The weather here is frequently superb
for astrophotography. The air is typically
bone dry with very little haze or air pollution. These conditions greatly minimize the scattering of light from nearby
Los Angeles, 65 miles (105 kilometers) to
the southeast. Most if not all of the haze,
The allure of dark, pollution-free skies
has drawn Southern Californias astrophotographers to Mount Pinos for five
decades. During new Moon the paved parking area below the summit bustles with activity all night. Unless otherwise noted,
images with this article are by the author.

2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Sky & Telescope August 2000

129

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130

smog, and smoke found in the lower elevations around Los Angeles is trapped
below 5,000 feet because of the regions
ever-present inversion layer. Another important yet often overlooked meteorological attribute is the dominant west-toeast airflow. It pushes pollution created
by the larger cities away from the mountain (no major cities lie to the west).
Then there is the parking lot a clean,
low-dust environment for equipment.
The pavement probably creates some air
currents during the night due to radiating heat, but these do not seem to degrade the seeing conditions.
While all these factors can greatly affect the sky quality at Mount Pinos, the
coastal marine layer found along the California seashore is the most influential.
Caused by relatively warm, moist air
condensing as it flows over the cooler
coastal waters, the marine layer often
blankets the coastal cites including Los
Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and
Ventura with thick, low clouds and fog.
This can totally extinguish their bubbles
of light pollution. The marine layer is
most common during the spring and
summer months, and it also influences
other astrophoto sites in the regions surrounding mountains and deserts.
The astrophotographers who often
take advantage of this terrific site have
come to be known as the Mount Pinos
Rat Pack. Among them are Tony and
Daphne Hallas, who have created some
of the most awe-inspiring cosmic portraits of our time. Although their work
has employed a veritable arsenal of different telescopes, they are currently using
a custom-built 14.5-inch f/8 astrographic
Cassegrain with both 35-mm and 120
film formats.
According to Tony, the couple first became interested in astrophotography in
1987, about a year after delving into the
world of amateur astronomy. With
Tonys background in professional photography and Daphnes experience as a
photo-lab technician, they both thought
astrophotography would be easy. According to Tony, however, We took our first
images and got nothing on the negatives
except some squiggles. At that point,
they knew astrophotography would be a
challenging hobby.
In the late 1980s Tony and Daphne
began using a sandwich technique that
uses two negatives of the same object
(S&T: August 1989, page 216; and November 1998, page 130). In the resulting

Michael Stecker is familiar to many readers as a frequent contributer to the Gallery department. His
view of the well-known Horsehead Nebula is a digital composite of three 50-minute exposures on
120-format Kodak Pro 400 PPF film made with an Astro-Physics 130 f/6 refractor at Mount Pinos.

August 2000 Sky & Telescope

2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

14
99

Red Rock Canyon

State Park

Bakersfield
5

Mojave

101

15

58

Barstow
14

Mt. Pinos

40

C A L I F O R N I A
15

Santa
Barbara

San
Bernardino

101

Los
Angeles

Cottonwood Spring
Joshua Tree NP
Site off
Red Cloud Road

Palm 10
10
Springs

10

Anza OCA site

Mt. Laguna
San
Diego
Tierra del Sol
SDAA site

Sites within
Anza-Borrego Desert SP
86
8

M E X I C O

S & T MAP BY STEVEN SIMPSON

15

Left: Michael Stecker, another regular atop Mount Pinos, often tracks unusual and offbeat objects with his 8-inch f/4 Takahashi E200 hyperbolic
astrograph. Right: Most of the prime photography sites in Southern California are nestled in the mountains and valleys northeast of San Diego.

prints, they found that faint nebulae that

had barely shown in earlier images now
stood out in bold, color-saturated contrast. Tony and Daphne now scan their
negatives, composite them digitally using
Picture Window, and add final enhancements with Adobe Photoshop. As their
stunning results demonstrate, Team Hallas has come a long way since those initial squiggles.
You will usually find the newest members of the Rat Pack, Bob and Janice
Fera, set up next to the Hallases. Living
in Calabasas, California, Bob is an information-systems manager and Janice a

sales engineer. Bob first took up astrophotography in the 1970s, when he traveled to the Los Angeles Astronomical
Societys star parties in Lockwood Valley,
near Mount Pinos. But his interest really
was piqued around 1990. I was browsing through a magazine rack and came
across Sky & Telescope, Bob recalls. I
saw the photographs that the Hallases
and others were taking, and I couldnt
believe my eyes. So I decided to get a
telescope and give it a try again. These
days the Feras ply the skies with a Celestron 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (used at f/10) on an Astro-Physics

Among its many appealing qualities, the Mount Pinos observing site features a large paved
area, which keeps dust to a minimum. Mount Pinos offers remarkably dark skies despite being
just 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

1200 mount, though theyre awaiting delivery of a 12.5-inch f/9 Cassegrain being
built by Parallax Instruments. They employ imaging techniques much like the
Hallases.
Bill and Sally Fletcher of Malibu, California, have opted to take a slightly different route in capturing and processing
their images. Instead of color film, they
use the tricolor method. That is, they
shoot three black-and-white images of the
same object through red, green, and blue
filters using gas-hypersensitized Kodak
Technical Pan film. The negatives are then
scanned and assembled with a Macintosh
computer. Since attempting their first astrophotos back in 1985, the Fletchers
have used 8- and 16-inch f/4.5 Newtonians and an 8-inch Schmidt camera, along
with medium-format, wide-angle lenses
with a diffusion filter to create unique
portraits of the constellations.
Another Mount Pinos regular is Michael Stecker. A radiologist by day,
Stecker can be found every new-Moon
period photographing the heavens. Having always had an interest in photography, he first became intrigued by astronomy during the 1986 apparition of
Halleys Comet. He then blended the
two interests and began taking his first
astrophotos with a Celestron Comet
Catcher, a 200-mm lens, and a Super Polaris mount. Although he owns a Takahashi E200 hyperbolic astrograph as well
as a Celestron C11 and a C14, he currently prefers using telephoto lenses and
Sky & Telescope August 2000

131

astro imaging
Innovative astrophotographers Bill and Sally
Fletcher are often found among the Mount
Pinos Rat Pack.

his Astro-Physics refractors for photography.

Stecker seems to relish tracking down
lesser-known objects, some of which cannot be found on todays popular charts, as
well as astrophysical targets like the
Cygnus X-1 region. For films, he prefers
black-and-white over color and professes
that some of his best work has been done
with gas-hypered Kodak Technical Pan
film. If you plan a trip to Mount Pinos on
any given new-Moon weekend, you are
sure to meet up with Stecker along
with other Rat Pack regulars James Foster,
Kim Zussman, and Martin Germano.
Orange County Astronomers
Anza Site
Traveling well south and east from
Mount Pinos across the Los Angeles
basin, we reach the San Jacinto Mountains of Riverside County. Although
some of these peaks exceed 10,000 feet in
elevation, most of the summits fall between 3,000 and 6,000 feet. Its in these
lower ranges that the largest astronomy
club in the United States, the Orange
County Astronomers (OCA), developed
a 20-acre observing site near the town of
Anza off State Highway 371. Located just
12 miles northeast of Palomar Observatory, the site is home to the clubs observatory, its 22-inch f/8 Cassegrain reflector,
and numerous pads and observatories belonging to OCA members. At an elevation
of 4,300 feet (1,310 meters), the site is in a
region generally classified as Mediterranean: not a true desert, with significant
precipitation as both rain and snow. But
humidity is generally low, and the seeing
can border on exceptional.
While the climatic conditions are quite
good, the same cannot be said for the
darkness of the sky. The large towns of
Temecula and Palm Springs loom just 25
132

August 2000 Sky & Telescope

After much experimentation with exposure times and diffusion filters, Bill and Sally Fletcher
perfected constellation photography, represented by this image of Orion that enhances the
visibility and color of the brightest stars.

miles away, and light pollution from numerous housing and business developments in the adjacent Temecula Valley
have brightened the sites sky noticeably
within the past five years. Only on rare
occasions, when a thick layer of coastal
clouds blocks the lights below, do the
night skies revert back to the quality of
days long gone.

When acquired in the early 1980s, the

Anza property was nothing more than a
graded swath of earth. But the OCA mobilized its members to develop the site,
and Anza Observatory was dedicated in
September 1984. Sporting all the comforts
of home, including a warming room, microwave, refrigerator, restroom, and shower, the observatory has proved very useful

Unimproved observing sites near Desert Center, California, and campgrounds in neighboring
Joshua Tree National Park are gaining popularity among the regions diehard observers.

2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

during several of my own astrophotography sessions.

The encroaching light pollution has
not hampered everyone at Anza. One of
the worlds most successful amateur supernova hunters, Wayne Johnson, has
used the clubs big reflector and a custombuilt CCD camera to discover six supernovae in the last eight years. Mr. Galaxy
became an OCA member in 1982 after
moving to California from Arizona.
When I asked what drives him to
image all those galaxies night after night
in search of supernovae, Johnson replied,
I suppose its the fact that I like to see
dynamic activity in something that ordinarily doesnt appear to change because
it is so large and far away. It takes a galaxy the size of our own Milky Way some
200 million years to rotate, so to see
some activity in an apparently static object is very interesting. The adrenaline
rush is a feeling that everyone should experience. There is no way to describe it.
Beyond his supernova work, Johnson
helps organize, promote, and run the
popular AstroImage seminars, which draw
some of todays most advanced astrophotographers and imagers. He has also
served as OCA president, vice chairman
of the annual Riverside Telescope Makers
Conference, vice chairman of the Western Amateur Astronomers, and a regional
chairman of the Astronomical League
among others! Even though he recently
moved back to Arizona, where he works
in Tucson as an aerospace engineer, Johnson remains very active in the Southern
California astronomy scene.

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Joshua Tree and Desert Center

Continuing east from Anza Observatory,
over the towering peaks of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa ranges, past Palm
Springs and Indio, we arrive in one of
the most beautiful parts of the California desert. Named after a picturesque
tree found in this region, Joshua Tree
National Park has been a favorite site of
Southern California astrophotographers
for decades.
Joshua Tree is a unique area. Two of the
great deserts in North America the
high, cool, wet Mojave and the lower, hotter, drier Colorado converge here. Altitudes in the park generally range between
2,000 and 4,000 feet, though some of the
higher peaks top 5,000 feet. One of the
most popular campgrounds for astrophotographers is Cottonwood Spring, near
the parks south entrance, which offers an
2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Sky & Telescope August 2000

133

astro imaging

Center, which are gaining popularity for

their even darker skies. One in particular,
just south of Interstate 10 along Red
Cloud Road, shows great promise.

Palm Springs

Los
Angeles

El Centro

San
Diego
Tijuana,
Mexico

As this all-sky view demonstrates, light pollution from Los Angeles and San Diego dominates
the western skyline at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. But when those cities are cloaked
under coastal clouds, the sky darkens dramatically.

134

At Tierra del Sol, just north of the Mexican

border, members of the San Diego Astronomical Association have the luxury of concrete set-up pads and power outlets for their
observing equipment.

elevation of 2,600 feet (790 meters), easy

access from Interstate 10, and dark skies.
Its little wonder this spot has become so
popular.
One frequent observer is Allen Hwang,
a physician and member of the Riverside
Astronomical Society, who has been recording the night sky since 1986. He
prefers shooting wide-field color images,
a task made easier since acquiring a 6inch Astro-Physics refractor and a Pentax
6 7 camera for prime-focus photography. Nebulae are favorite targets, Hwang
says, and he also enjoys capturing the
many colors of background stars and the
Milky Ways dark nebulae.
Joshua Tree National Park does have
one drawback, Hwang notes. It seems to
be directly in the flight path of everything
flying into Southern California. Its not
unusual to see a dozen airplanes at any
particular time, and I seem to capture one
on every other exposure. He and other
members of the Riverside Astronomical
Society have explored open-desert sites
east of the park, near the town of Desert

August 2000 Sky & Telescope

2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Californias deserts are so vast and beautiful that youd think it would be hard
for one region to stand out above the
rest. But in many observers eyes, AnzaBorrego Desert State Park is just that
place. Located 55 miles (90 km) east of
San Diego, this sprawling, 600,000-acre
preserve is truly a land of extremes. Elevations within the park range from 6,193
feet near its western border in the San
Ysidro Mountains to just 15 feet at the
eastern end near the Salton Sea. Snow
sometimes caps the highest mountain
peaks during winter, while summer temperatures in low-lying valleys can exceed
120 Fahrenheit. Annual rainfall averages
just over 6 inches.
Anza-Borrego features numerous campgrounds, both primitive and developed,
so finding a place to set up for a night of
astrophotography is quite easy. Some of
the more popular ones are Culp Valley,
Arroyo Salado, Blair Valley, and Dos Cabezas. While these are open year round,
the best time to visit the park is during
the coolest months of October to May.
If developed campgrounds are not your
style, the hundreds of miles of rugged
dirt roads that run though the backcountry offer true solitude for astronomical pursuits.
Sky conditions are generally quite
good within the park but can become exceptional when a cloudy marine layer
snuffs out the lights of urban San Diego.
At such times detail in the Milky Way is
very apparent, with starclouds and dark
nebulae etching its soft glow. The light
pollution from San Diego and nearby Escondido is generally minimized by the
dry air that usually blankets this region.
Among the talented astrophotographers lured to the sites in Anza-Borrego
is David Churchill. Originally from England, Churchill has been interested in astronomy since the age of eight. He
moved to Aliso Viejo six years ago in an
attempt to escape the ever-present cloud
cover found over the British Isles, and
hes now a director for a computer-software company in Orange County.
Since arriving in Southern California,
Churchill has enjoyed much success in
capturing beautiful images of the night
sky. Using two Astro-Physics refractors, a

As evening approaches atop Mount Pinos,

author Chris Cook is ready for action with a
Tele Vue 85-mm refractor piggybacked atop
his 8-inch Celestron telescope.

Author Chris Cook regards the observing site near Tierra del Sol, California, one of his favorites even though the weather conditions are somewhat unpredictable. There he captured
this view of IC 2118 (the Witch Head Nebula) in Eridanus. For this final rendition Cook combined two 60-minute exposures taken through a Tele Vue 85-mm refractor used at f/7.8.

6-inch f/7 and a 4-inch f/5.8, he enjoys

shooting wide-field images on 120-format
color emulsions. Churchill was among the
first to use the UMAX PowerLook 3000
scanner on astronomical negatives. When
not enjoying the remoteness of AnzaBorrego, he can usually be found in his
backyard imaging the Moon and planets.
The Border: Tierra del Sol
If the southern globular cluster Omega
Centauri (NGC 5139) is on your list of
imaging targets, you may want to visit
the observing site maintained by the San
Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA)
near the hamlet of Tierra del Sol. This
site is about as far south as you can get
in the state of California. Located 50
miles (80 km) east of San Diego and a
mile north of the U.S.-Mexican border at
32 37 north latitude, Tierra del Sol sits

on a high, rolling plain 3,720 feet (1,134

meters) in elevation. Its climate is classified as high desert or possibly even
Mediterranean, with an average annual
precipitation of around 10 inches. Extending over Baja California, the southern horizon is very dark and ideal for
shooting those southern showpieces
youve always wanted to capture.
The sky over Tierra del Sol can be unpredictable. Lacking any mountain ranges
to its west to block the moist airflow off
the Pacific Ocean, the site sometimes experiences severe ground fog and dew.
While this can create excellent seeing for
lunar and planetary work, it can be disastrous for deep-sky photography. (Unfortunately I have experienced this situation
more than once.) But if wind conditions
are reversed, with a slight breeze coming
off the desert, the conditions are extreme2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

ly dry with good transparency.

The site has an observatory that houses a 22-inch f/7.5 Ritchey-Chrtien telescope, numerous private pads and smaller installations, and a general observing
field with concrete slabs where club
members set up their own equipment.
Power is available for anyone running
computers or CCD cameras.
One person very familiar with the
Tierra del Sol site is the current SDAA
president, John Laborde. One of the
founding members of the 32-year-old
club, Laborde oversaw the mechanical
design and construction of the clubs big
telescope. He photographs the heavens
from Tierra del Sol with a variety of
homemade telescopes, including a 10inch f/5.6 Newtonian and a 8.7-inch
f/3.6 Wright-Schmidt, guiding the exposures manually. Laborde finds astrophotography rewarding and satisfying, especially when he gets good results. I
even find the time I spend guiding on
unknown 6th- to 8th-magnitude guide
stars relaxing, he adds, and Ive spent
countless hours doing that!
After a night of manually guided photography, Laborde turns to his computer,
first to scan his negatives, then to enhance them using Picture Window and
Adobe Photoshop.
The Laguna Mountains
Some 15 to 20 miles northwest of Tierra
del Sol is a mountain range that many
consider to have the best astronomical
conditions in North America. The LaguSky & Telescope August 2000

135

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na Mountains, part of the Cleveland National Forest in eastern San Diego County, generally exceed 5,000 feet in elevation, with some peaks reaching 6,000
feet. Combine this height with a high
percentage of clear nights, low humidity,
excellent seeing, and dark skies, and you
have what many astrophotographers
would call paradise.
In fact, the sites many attributes have
drawn the attention of professional and
amateur astronomers alike. It is already
the home of San Diego State Universitys
Mount Laguna Observatory, which someday may boast a proposed 100-inch telescope. Atmospheric seeing conditions at
the observatory are frequently between 1
and 2 arcseconds, with certain regions on
the mountain averaging less than 1 arcsecond.
A Mount Laguna site popular among
observers is Laguna Meadow Loop campground, off Sunrise Highway. Surrounded
by beautiful mountain pines at an elevation of 5,500 feet, this enclave provides
both an ideal location for astrophotography and a wonderful place for daytime
activities such as hiking or bird watching.
During my expeditions to the mountain,
I have found that the dark, dry, and
steady skies, coupled with the clean fresh
smell of verdant mountain pines, make a
combination that is hard to beat.
Southern California is a huge geographic region, diverse in both landscape
and people. Like the pioneer explorers of
old, the regions astrophotographers are
constantly looking for new sites. Besides
the selection of terrific astrophotography
sites discussed here, Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve, and
Red Rock Canyon State Park also offer
exquisite conditions for photography.
Other sites may be known to only a few
dedicated observers, and still more likely
await discovery along a previously unexplored trail, atop some remote mountain, or down one of the countless dirt
roads that crisscross the vast California
deserts. Wherever these outposts exist,
talented astrophotographers will undoubtedly find them in their continuing
quest for the best sites and the most
spectacular images on Earth.
Always searching for the perfect astrophotography site, software engineer Chris Cook
often leaves his home in Laguna Niguel, California, on forays into the regions deserts and
mountains. His astronomical images can be
viewed at www.abmedia.com/astro/.

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August 2000 Sky & Telescope

2000 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.