The night sky and dawn of Monday, March 7, 2016 were the bearers of four gifts for anyone gazing up in southeastern Massachusetts. The Milky Way's galactic core was visible after 3:00 a.m., in its infancy for prime viewing in the northern hemisphere (from March to October). The International Space Station (ISS) zoomed across the horizon at 4:02 a.m. Lastly, the crescent moon and Venus rose above the horizon at about 5:10 a.m. Crystal clear skies made it possible to see all of this.
 |
| Gooseberry Island, courtesy of Google Maps on 3/13/2016 |
My destination to photograph all of these gorgeous sights was Gooseberry Island in Westport, Massachusetts. Gooseberry Island is part of the Horseneck Beach State Reservation, and it also is the southernmost point of Massachusett's mainland. It offers less light pollution toward the south, making it an ideal spot to gaze at the Milky Way.
A small causeway allows one to drive (or walk) from the town of Westport onto the island. The island itself has an intriguing history. It is a park now, but it used to be populated with town residents and once was the site of lookout towers during World War II. The houses are long gone, but the two towers, now graffiti-laced, remain in the southern section of the island.
Armed with my newly purchased Canon 6D camera and a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens, I was excited to figuratively christen my photography equipment by capturing shots of these four astronomical gifts. I was a little late to the party, however; I hoped to photograph the ISS as it crossed in front of the Milky Way's center but was delayed by a couple of minutes. Thankfully, on the southeastern shoreline, I still framed the station in its last stretch at the horizon's edge. Some light pollution emanates from the islands southeast but not enough to drown out the Milky Way. Generally speaking, the ISS is visible on various days before sunrise. It looks like a very fast-moving plane, except without the blinking lights. NASA provides a helpful online resource with specific times and locations when and where one can see the ISS from Earth, at
Spot the Station.
 |
| 4:05 a.m.: ISS near the Horizon, and the Milky Way's core |
A short walk from the shore toward the western side of the island are the two World War II era towers. It was from there that I focused my efforts on the Milky Way with the taller tower in the foreground of the photograph. I was pleased to get two impressive shots -- the first with the tower and coastal brush completely in the dark, and the second featuring some light painting I created by walking around the tower with a flashlight.
 |
| 4:37 a.m.: The tall WWII tower & the Milky Way |
 |
| 4:54 a.m.: Light painting around the tower |
You can see in the two images above that dawn was approaching. I walked back to the eastern shoreline to watch the skies brighten with its colorful saturated glow of orange, magenta, and blue. On schedule, as the software program Stellarium predicted (a useful tool), the crescent moon and Venus rose above the horizon, well before the sun. As I only had the Rokinon wide-angle lens, it was necessary to utilize a lot of cropping later to bring the moon and our closest planetary neighbor into clear focus for a photograph.
 |
| 5:26 a.m.: The crescent moon and Venus rise before dawn |
This was a fantastic adventure for this photographer, and it was a convenient 45-minute drive south from where I live. I was the only person standing on Gooseberry Island for those two hours. It was quiet, brilliant, mesmerizing, and peaceful all at once. It was perfect. And so I once again wish to thank the night sky, the dawn, and a marvel of space technology in orbit, on that early morning of March 7, 2016.
