· Jonathan Cutrer · Notes · 2 min read
Field Note: Enchanted Rock Before Sunrise
Dark sky site, granite dome, 47°F and clear. Some mornings are just right.
Parked at the primitive camping area at 4:50am. Sky was clear and the Milky Way core was visible — barely, this time of year, but there. Temperature 47°F and dropping.
Summit by headlamp at 5:35am. The granite is pink and the headlamp turns everything the wrong color, so I turned it off and let my eyes adjust. The dome is big enough that there’s no horizon clutter once you’re at the top — just the arch of the sky and the dark Hill Country rolling south.
Shot for about 40 minutes before the sky started to change. Long exposures first (20-30 seconds at f/2, ISO 3200), then as the sky lightened I dropped the ISO and started pulling for the transition light — that 15-minute window when the sky is deep blue and the stars are still visible and the rock starts to pick up the first ambient light.
The transition shots are always the hardest to time. You’re changing settings every two or three minutes as the exposure requirement drops by half. I missed one frame I’d been waiting for because I was changing ISO when the color peaked.
Sun broke at 7:09am. By 7:30 the light was already too flat and I was done.
Back at the car by 8:00am.
Conditions: 47°F, no wind, zero humidity, BORTLE 3 sky Gear: Sony A7 IV, 24mm f/1.4 GM, Gitzo tripod Keeper rate: 9 frames out of 140
The 24mm f/1.4 earns its weight on nights like this. The 11 minutes of extra latitude in ISO before the shot degrades compared to my f/2 lens is the difference between getting the Milky Way and getting noise.
Drive home on 965 and 290, which are both good roads in that hour before traffic.
Next dark sky opportunity is mid-April around the new moon. Palo Duro Canyon is on the list.
