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Babak Tafreshi | Photographer | Explorer | Speaker

National Geographic photojournalist, founder of The World at Night (TWAN), preserving natural night skies, bridging art & science

2020-06-13

Night Sky, Our Connection to the Universe

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The few years that I lived in Germany gave me an opportunity to explore some of the outstanding castles of the country, at night. The town of Schwerin near Hamburg was calm and quiet on this spring night of 2013. It is hone to magnificent palace, serving as the local state parliament. The palace is an icon of romantic Historicism architecture in Europe.

We are one out of 1 trillion species currently living on Earth, a unique paradise in the harsh space ocean. ⁣In this morning of April 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Full Moon was setting at sunrise. Swipe for a closer view.

An August night of Sierra Nevada. The Milky Way sets above the rugged Mt Whitney as the sunrise ends the world at night. Music by composer @barbadbayat, from our growing collaboration with Prague Metropolitan Orchestra. At 14,505 ft (4421m) it’s the highest summit in the contiguous US. About 20,000 people are permitted to climb Whitney every year and I’m sure some of you have been to the peak. I visit the area every year for the California Nightscapes photo workshop with my colleague @mikeshawphotography. This was at our 2016 program.

Sky is the limit. This changed 60 years ago today! April 12 is the International Day of Human Space Flight, designated by @unitednations. This marks the first human space flight, when Yuri Gagarin reached 169 km above Earth surface and completed one single orbit around the planet, in 1961. Only 7 years after that Yuri died during a routine training flight when he was 34. The cause of the crash is still uncertain.

“Galactic Reflections”. Mars glows in red in the sky of a paradise planet. At a High Sierra lake in California, about 10,000 ft high, far from light pollution, the Milky Way's bright core appears in its most striking beauty. There are two more planets visible in this 20-second exposure photograph from Aug 2018. Jupiter is the bright point on the right and Saturn is visible against the galactic center. Swipe to see the labeled image.

Our bright artificial lights that we leave them on without need may seem harmless, but science has proved the light pollution has striking consequences that are harmful to all living things including human body. Today the International Dark Sky Week begins, April 5-12 . If you care about the night sky and nature conservation this is a great time to join the dark sky movement. Learn more, share the word, and support @idadarksky, International Dark Sky Association (IDA), the nonprofit that aims to preserve natural night environment of the planet and provides solutions for light pollution. Effective outdoor lighting reduces light pollution, leading to a better quality of life for all.

In many years of night-sky photography I have frequently encountered nocturnal animals but managed to capture them only a few times. Here in Iran’s Teimareh Valley, between towns of Khomeyn and Golpayegan, home to many thousands prehistoric rock art, the moon lights up a panel of petroglyphs that tells a tale of horse-riding hunters, snowfall, a wolf, an Asiatic cheetah, and probably lions. Winter stars in Orion and Taurus rises above the rock. Several years after this 15-second exposure was taken, I was reviewing the image when I noticed a curious fox on top of the rock! See the next enlarged images. The fox has moved in the middle of the exposure resulted in a ghostly appearance.

“Pele In The Distance”. Swipe to see the full frame image of this magnificent lightning in the pitch-black starry sky, revealed in a single-exposure photograph from the Hawaiian island of Maui in August 2015. Previously exclusive to the National Geographic Fine Art galleries, this piece is now available for prints on my website (the link in my bio).

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