My God, it's Full of Stars!

I've been loving my new 20mm f/1.7 lens since my lovely wife gave it me a couple of days ago. One thing I've been itching to try is catching some stars. Using the rule of 600, I would be able to have the shutter open for 15 seconds (600 divided by the 35mm-equivalent focal length: i.e. 40), which at f/17 would let in a lot more light than I've previously been able to capture. Of course, as I read recently (on a website I don't think I kept the url for), longer exposures aren't necessarily helpful for deep-sky photography without a tracking mount, as the extra light you collect isn't in fact going to be hitting the same spot on the sensor: even if it doesn't actually form a trail in the image, it's not really going to amplify the brightness of the resultant pixels. So, I decided to just do 10 seconds. No particular reason for 10" except its a nice round number. I set up the tripod, aimed the camera up, and clicked...

O_O

Just call me Commander David Bowman ;-)

I am giddy. Seriously. This is the sort of shot I have wanted for I don't know how long. - So you will have to put up with more. Do check this one out engalaxenated.

Heh - and the kids were watching heaps of Star Wars today; their related play would have been my blip if I hadn't got actual stars.

Gonna stop typing and start posting. 8)