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Yosemite Nocturnes

A collection of Yosemite images which were all created after sunset.
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Snow Storm Midnight Passing
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Snow Storm Midnight Passing

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  • Moonlit Magic ©2011 James McGrew<br /> A spring snow storm cleared after dark and the light of a nearly full moon painted the walls and Upper Yosemite Fall with splashes of light and color including a lunar rainbow.
  • Alpenglow on Fletcher Peak from Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. This is not a sunset. True alpenglow occurs about 30-45 min after the sun has dropped below the horizon, and the sun's rays are scattered and refracted along the earth's atmosphere by high ice crystals or water vapor. This event happens more often in winter and only rarely occurs during the summer. When it does, the mountains or sky can begin to glow with a soft salmon pink, almost glowing from within just at the time the stars begin to appear in the sky.
  • "Midnight Clearing Snowstorm." ©2001 James McGrew. Snow fell on Yosemite Valley for several straight days in March, 2001. On the night of a full moon, I watched the satellite image on line from home in Mariposa. I realized that the storm would break sometime in the middle of the night so I drove up to Yosemite Valley, arriving a little after midnight. By 1:30 am, the storm cleared and moonlight shone down on fresh fallen snow and clouds swirling over the valley walls. The temperature was in the mid teens but it was so beautiful and I was having so much fun making photographs in the fluffy powder that I scarcely noticed the cold.
  • Sequence of Moon Passing Through a Total Lunar Eclipse as viewed from Yosemite, August 2007. At about 3:00 am, some friends woke me from my sleep to watch the lunar eclipse together. We gathered in a rocky amphitheater at 9,400 ft elevation to watch the event over Yosemite's High Country.
  • Twilight Cloud Dance over Half Dome. ©2009, James McGrew After the crowds faded away and photographers packed up their gear, I stopped painting and began photographing to create this image with clouds moving across the sky.
  • "Lightning Over Yosemite Valley." ©2005, James McGrew. I shot this during an intense thunderstorm that dropped marble sized hailstones and frequent lightning strikes. About a second after this bolt lit up the sky over the Three Brothers, powerful thunder rattled my camera and the windows of the nearby Ranger Club.
  • Snow Storm Midnight Passing
  • Campfire at Sunrise High Sierra Camp. Copyright © 2008 James McGrew.
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  • Half Dome Overlooks Cloud Formation after Sunset. ©2009, James McGrew
  • Bridalveil by January Moonlight
  • Horsetail Fall by Moonlight
  • Lunar Rainbow, Lower Yosemite Falls. ©2010 James McGrew
  • Gossamer Blankets Settle Over Tuolumne. ©James McGrew
  • The Moon Rises over a Ranger Campfire Program at Merced Lake. Copyright, ©2010 James McGrew
  • Ursa Major Above Wildcat. Copyright, ©2010 James McGrew <br /> Moonlight illuminates the cliffs above Glen Aulin as Ursa Major (clearly visible from the recognizable big dipper).
  • Lenticular Clouds and the Earth's Shadow. Copyright © 2008 James McGrew.
  • The moon between Saggitarius and Scorpius over Vogelsang HSC. Copyright © 2004 James McGrew.<br /> <br /> I often give astronomy presentations when I'm at Vogelsang because the high elevation (about 10,200 ft above sea level) means less atmosphere between our eyes and the stars. Coupled with little or no light pollution, we can view so many stars that on a moonless night, somebody not acquainted with the constellations easily gets confused by the myriad of stars that fill the sky. However, when the moon shines, it obscures all but the brightest stars, making constellations clearly visible as seen in this image. Scorpius on the right is seen with its head in the upper right corner of the image, and the tail extending down behind the trees, and the stinger curving up below and to the right of the moon. Antares (a red supergiant and the brightest star in this image) serves as the heart of the scorpion. The position of the moon, near Saggitarius in this image also happens to lie approximately in the path of view directly to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
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