Star gazing on the plains of central South Dakota is a treat, if this timelapse video from Randy Halvorson — who braved chilly temps and howling winds this May to capture the Milky Way drifting across the night sky — is any guide.
"There were very few nights, when I could shoot, that were perfectly clear, and often the wind was blowing 25mph+," he writes on his website. "That made it hard to get the shots I wanted."
He kept most of the shots low to the ground to prevent the wind from shaking or blowing over his camera. Each ten seconds of video is about 2 hours and 2 minutes worth of time.
Be sure to check out Halvorson's Dakotalapse website for examples of his work.
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John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
