Yellowstone by Moonlight

It’s been a while since I posted a time-lapse animation just because it’s heart-stoppingly beautiful.

Let’s fix that. This is “Yellowstone by Moonlight”, shot by photographer Christopher Cauble. As the name implies, the only source of light in this is our faithful natural satellite.

Cauble shot this over several years; I wondered about that as I watched since I was seeing winter and summer constellations. It’s possible to get them both in the sky around the same time, but not easily for those long, languid rising and setting shots.

I think my favorite sequence—yes, despite being an astronomer—is where the clouds move in front of the full Moon at 1:30. There appear to be two different layers moving in two directions, even as the Moon moves in a third.

The geysers are also eerie and magnificent. What a fantastic video! But given my three favorite sciences, in order, are astronomy, geology, and meteorology, maybe I’m a little biased. Or triased.

You can find more of Cauble’s work on Instagram, and you can follow him on Twitter.