Milky Way Over Hopi House

Of all the western national parks, Grand Canyon offers the greatest inspiration for contemplation of vastness of space and time. Here we see Mary Colter's Hopi House representing Grand Canyon's rich cultural history with Jupiter glowing golden in the sky above Sagittarius shaped like a pouring teapot with steam rising from the spout. That "steam" is the core of our home galaxy, the Milky Way and appears to ascend up to Altair, the center of three brighter stars in the upper left corner of the painting. Altair represents the eye of the Eagle in Aquila.

Traveling at a constant rate of 186,000mi/second, sunlight takes only minutes to reach earth after reflecting off Jupiter. But light takes years to travel the vast distances between star systems and the light we see from Altair, one of the closet visible stars, actually left the star's surface about 17 years ago. I first visited and painted Grand Canyon with my family as even my youngest daughter was technically present though not quite yet born about 18 years ago. So when I observed this scene last September, the light I saw from Altair actually left the star about the time of my first visit to the canyon and has traveled through space the entire time. To simulate the luminous and shimmering glow of stars I painted each star in multiple steps and glazed the sky multiple times over the course of several months. The stars are painted accurately with respect to their positions, color and relative magnitude in order to create not just a feeling for the magical night time experience but an actual portrait of the sky over Hopi House.