Reasons to Be Cheerful

I am a big fan of the Talking Heads and David Byrne. I admire not only his music but also his passion for social consciousness, which is evident in his music, art, and writing. In 2018, he launched the web site and lecture series Reasons to Be Cheerful. Over the years their articles have been a great source of hopefulness and inspiration. 

The title of one of their latest articles, West Texas Oil Country is Revealing a Sky Full of Stars, caught my eye as my son Brian and I visited Big Bend National Park and McDonald Observatory back in April and had driven through the Permian Basin. Imagine my surprise to find that the article showcased a photo taken on that trip, the one I now use as the header for this blog and described in the post The Road to the Stars. Thanks to the author for including my image and for providing proper attribution. 

The article itself discusses the encouraging progress being made to reduce light pollution in West Texas, with the assistance of the oil industry. If you haven't been to Big Bend, you should definitely put it on your bucket list as the night sky there is truly breathtaking and must be witnessed firsthand. And make sure to attend a star party at McDonald Observatory, where scientists are conducting valuable research and the visitor staff excels at explaining the wonders of the night sky. 

Personally, I feel protecting the dark skies of West Texas is something worthwhile. In addition to the article above, you can find out more about dark sky protection in the area at web sites for the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve and the International Dark Sky Association.

I still have addditional images and some video from our trip to share. Here is one of the Milky Way over Casa Grande taken from the Chisos Basin. This was captured with using the incredible Night Sight feature on my Pixel 7 phone. 

As always, click on images to see full-sized. 

Chasing the Strawberry Moon Over Downtown Dallas - Remix

This is a remix of previously posted video of the 2023 Strawberry Moon, this time including a cropped view that better highlights the Strawberry Moon rising through the clouds behind Reunion Tower.

Watch full-screen for best view. 

Chasing the Strawberry Moon Over Dallas

Although the clouds interfered with getting a clean telephoto image of the full Strawberry Moon of 2023 above Reunion Tower in Dallas (my original goal), I was still able to capture this sequence of it through the clouds as it rose over downtown just after sunset on June 3rd. 

This is 34 minutes compressed into about 12 seconds. Watch center-frame and you'll see the moon just peak through the clouds and then pop in and out through to the end, tracing an arch up and above Reunion Tower.

Timlapse sequence captured with a Nikon D750 and Nikkor 24-120 lens at 40mm, shot from Trammel Crow Park on the Trinity River. Processed with Lightroom Classic, LRTimeLapse and Da Vinci Resolve.

See my shot of the Strawberry Moon over downtown last year here.

Music is Time's Up by Loopop, YouTube Media Library.

Watch full-screen to get the full effect.