Shooting Stars

PREPARED FOR A METEOR SHOWER, A PHOTOGRAPHER FINDS THE NIGHT HAS A FEW SURPRISES IN STORE.

- Barry Tanenbaum

THE NIGHT PROMISED PICTURES: there’d be a clear sky and the peak period of the annual Perseid meteor shower.

There’d be a lot more, but photographer Christoph Stopka and his wife, Cathy, didn’t know when they set up the camera in their backyard that the sky show would far exceed their expectations.

The Stopkas live in Westcliffe, Colorado, in a house 9,000 feet above sea level. Their view of the night sky is spectacular and unspoiled by light pollution because there is none; Westcliffe is a designated International Dark Sky Community. “People come from around the world to photograph the night sky over Westcliffe,” Stopka says. “There are no streetlights allowed here, and residents either don’t have outside lights or have covers over them to limit their visibility.”