Stars vs Gas Flaring on the Pawnee

The area around Pawnee Grasslands has been recently impacted by heavy oil and gas development. What was once considered a near-dark skies location has been transformed by the light pollution of copious amounts of natural gas being flared off as far as the eye can see (especially around Grover and increasingly the Pawnee Buttes). All of this natural gas is wasted thanks to insufficient pipeline capacity and processing facilities added to the low price of natural gas giving little incentive for the gas to be saved. I plan to continue to document these changes as I get a handle on how to image under these challenging conditions.

If you are interested in learning more about this and seeing what it has done to the night skies of North Dakota where oil and gas fracking development is much further along see here ( http://geology.com/stories/13/natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota/ ) .

NightStarsSpaceAstronomyLight PollutionNatureNightscapeOil FieldFlaringGasNatural GasOilDevelopmentIndustryRuralPawneeGrasslandsCSPChangeAstrophotographyNikonD700

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