Mount Shasta, California

Looming 14,179 feet high, Mount Shasta can be seen miles and miles away on a clear day as you drive north on highway 5. Mount Shastina is a satellite cone of Mr. Shasta, located on Shasta's west shoulder. Standing at 12,335 ft, Shastina would be the third highest volcanic peak in the Cascade Range, after Mount Rainier and Mount Shasta.

As the golden hour approaches the clouds hovering around Mt. Shasta begin to display their evening glory.

One of my goals on this trip was to capture the Milky Way over Mount Shasta. The developing clouds at sundown made for a nice sunset but I was beginning to doubt whether or not I would be able to get a good view of the Milky Way.

I knew that it was not unusual in this mountain location to have clouds in the daytime and by the time full darkness arrives they are gone. That happened on this night and the galactic core became visible just above and to the right of Mount Shasta. An interesting thing happened as I was setting up the camera. I looked up and saw a string of lights, seemingly connected one to another, moving from west to east high in the sky. I grabbed my cel phone and took a video of it as it disappeared into the eastern sky. It was very weird. I Googled it and found that it was what is called a satellite train. Have you ever seen one? Apparently Elon Musk has many of these in our skies. I'm guessing they were lit up by the suns reflection and dissipated out of view as they moved to the east and entered the earth's shadow. Kind of a creepy thing to see in the night sky.

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