September is here! For a transplanted New Englander this is the time one begins looking forward to autumn leaves and a nip in the air; but I am now in Florida and there is still Hurricane season and more warm days and nights left in 2022. So I need to understand the climate where I now live. One of the helpful apps I have owned for several years is an iPhone/Android app called PhotoPills. However, I will be the first to admit that my utilization of this complicated app is not where I would consider my skill anywhere but at an amateur level.
However, even if you don’t own the app, you should get on their mailing list. The website is https://photopills.com. On their website they have the most comprehensive amount of data regarding shooting the Milky Way, stars, sunrise, sunset, and other types of photography. There are Definitive Guides MilkyWay Photography, Star Trails Photography, Mastering Golden Hour, Blue Hour and Twilights/Natural Light Photography, and Astronomical Events Photography. They also have on-line calculators for Photographers. On September 1 I received an email with a link to “What to Photograph in September 2022.” In the 8-minute video “The Bard”, Rafael, covers a lot of territory. One of the items he touches on is “Zodiacal Light.” This phenomenon is a twice a year event and for us on the East coast and it happens in September around the fall equinox.
It’s visible in both hemispheres twice a year, around both equinoxes when it’s at its steep- est or narrowest angle to the Earth’s orbit and points nearly straight up into the sky. The zodiacal light appears as a fairly dim triangle of light stretching up from the west in spring and east during the fall. The best time to see the zodiacal light is after the dusk astronomical twilight around the spring equinox and before the dawn astronomical twilight around the fall equinox. And if you want to photograph it, make sure you go to a dark sky location well away from bright city lights.
To learn more download the Zodiacal Light ebook. If you have not looked at this underrated website for photographers, I wholeheartedly recommend it. And the $10.99 cost for the app is certainly worth it. Happy shooting in September.
And don’t forget the Lightroom Summit is coming up in October — it will feature 45 classes – over 33 hours of education – from 15 of the world’s top Lightroom instructors. Each instructor will teach 3 classes. Each day classes go live and are then free to watch for 48 hours. to get your free pass sign up. If you are new to Lightroom, Matt Kloskowski is making a FREE mini-course for Beginners available the week before the Summit. The course will be available for the week of September 26 – 30, 2022. You can sign up here.
Additionally Adobe Max is also scheduled for October. So the last days you can watch the 2021 Adobe Max classes that are available from this link will be September 30. 2022.