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?
