St. Helens Night Panorama

Starry sky and the Milky Way appears above the summit of Mount St. Helens, as seen from a viewing point to the mountain. As noted by the photographer “I was on a TWAN imaging mission to several locations in the northwestern US. After I got to St. Helens area clouds moved in and sky stayed cloudy the whole night. But since I only had that one night to shoot there, I drove up the 2 hour drive to the summit of a nearby range in total fog. Deers were everywhere on the road and it was so foggy that an owl nearly ran into my car. After a lot of adventures on the road I found the summit totally overcast. But I stayed and and then miraculously the sky opened for about 10 minutes, which allowed to make this first TWAN image of St. Helens.”

Mount St. Helens (2,550 m) is an active volcano in the state of Washington, northwestern US. It is about 150 km south of Seattle. St. Helens is well known for its ash explosions and is famous for its catastrophic eruption in 1980 which was the most destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. The eruption, reduced the elevation of the mountain’s summit for 400 meters and replaced the top with a 1.6 km wide horseshoe-shaped crater. © Wally Pacholka