Camas Meadows

Blog for Camas Meadows Lodge™. Located on Camas Meadows Natural Area Preserve outside of Leavenworth, Washington. http://www.camasmeadowslodge.com All materials and photos copyrighted 2006-2017©

Friday, July 19, 2013

Summer Stars at Camas Meadows....


Summer Stars at Camas Meadows.......

It is July and the last of the wildflowers the astors and fireweed have made their appearance.  The meadow is starting to turning light green with the Camas flower stalks adding a bit of brown.  

The new colorful focus at Camas are the birds and butterflies.  A Western Tanager is nesting close to the lodge and you can see him making the rounds with his orange head and yellow body.  Yes, they do look like they flew through a paint factory.  

The last several years have been great butterfly years at Camas and it looks like this might be the third in a row.  This butterfly was willing to share the lounge with us for several minutes.


On moonless nights it is the stars and the Milky Way that take center stage at night.  Here is Milky Way in the Summer Triangle as it rises over the lodge.


A telescope lets you explore the center of the Milky Way.  It is impressive even without a telescope.



If your willing to hook your digital camera to a small telescope you can take pictures like this with a little practice.  This is a picture of an old supernova in Cygnus.  Is is a pretty sight in the telescope like that above, but our eyes can only see faint objects in black and white not color.  The telescope that took this picture was the same size as the spotting scope at the lodge.  This exposure was well over an hour and we nervously watched that approaching cloud seen in the picture above.


Hmm, if we could only see things in black and white would Camas Meadows still be a special place??


Yes, I think it still would be special.  More information at www.camasmeadowslodge.com