Sedona, AZ: Stargazing

Sedona is a stunning place to do some stargazing so one night we drove out with a local guide to a trail head and sat back to watch the stars.  When doing research for the trip I saw that Trip Advisor had a star tour as the #1 thing to do in Sedona so I figured it was a must do for us!  When I researched that company I learned it was a big group and met on the football field of the local high school.  So not my family’s style and not great for the star trail images I wanted to do.  Instead I called our hotel and asked for a recommendation for a local guide and they pointed me to Phil Ponvert, who I like to call the renaissance man of Sedona because he is a woodworker, a fly fishing guide and an amateur astronomer who leads stargazing tours.  I told him what we wanted to do and he was very flexible meeting up with us after our dinner and driving to a beautiful and secluded trail head 5 minutes from our hotel where I could set up and take some beautiful star trails with the canyons in the foreground.  I’ve played with star trails before in Africa and South America, but these were definitely my best yet and I can’t wait to do more the next place I visit! They’re super easy to do and it was nice that I could just set up my camera and leave the shutter open for the longer trail shots and enjoy the stargazing through the big telescope that our guide brought along with everyone else.