Frissell Ridge 2020
Photographer’s notes: I took this image on June 18, 2020, at 11:30 from Frissell Ridge at the east boundary of the Andrews Forest. It is a panorama based on 12 shots (7 pics at each position then stacked in computer—84 pictures total). Of course, this is not what you can see with your naked eye. It demonstrates how good and sensitive digital camera sensors are under low light conditions. I used Photoshop to stitch the images together and then increased the brightness and saturation a bit.
The Milky Way is arched because it is the projection of a spherical sky on a flat format. The core of the Milky Way is on the right side, just to the left of the constellation Scorpius. Jupiter is the bright star that appears above Mt. Bachelor and Saturn is just to the left of it. Pink areas in the Milky Way are emission nebula; for example, the “North American Nebula”, which is 50 lightyears across, is positioned above Mt. Washington.
Mt. Jefferson can be seen on the far left of the horizon. Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Washington are also visible. The light areas on the horizon are light pollution from the cities of Bend (behind North and Middle Sisters) and Redmond/Sisters to the left of that. I’m not sure what the bright orange area is on the left, it might be Madras. The green and reddish glow in the lower sky is from airglow, which is caused by chemical luminescence of oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere. Airglow is most visible near the horizon.
