17 August 2012

230/366 calling all stargazers

First of all, can there really still be 136 days left of this year? Seems like it should be over by now. Or is that perhaps because I have a daily reminder? Oy.

I dragged my. . . self (keep it G rated!) out of  bed at 3:30am to attempt a photo of the Milky Way. Guess what? The Hood River lights were too bright, even at 3:30am. I'll have to try again sometime I'm even further away from civilization.

Not wanting to waste my early wake-up, I turned around and shot the darker, north side of the sky. Hey, I got stars! Great. I liked my exposure, so I called my one shot good. My rush to get inside had absolutely nothing to do with the darkness and the chattering noises I heard and our frequent nighttime visits from skunks and raccoons. 

But once I took a closer look at my image at Normal Person Wake-Up Time, I saw two groupings of stars that I hadn't noticed before. I'm no astronomer—I can recognize a dipper and Orion and that's about it. Can anyone help satisfy my curiosity?