Testing skills

I got up before daylight today and walked out on the porch when I let the dog out.  Even though we have so much other light shining up toward the sky with the new development across the street, the stars were really blazing.    I went inside to get the camera with the 24mm prime lens and the tripod.  I set the manual controls I could remember from taking the star photos in Utah and the two second timer.   It was hard to find something to focus on as I was standing in the dark part of the yard and the only light was a tiny bit shining on the tree to the left from our security light shining over the roof of the house.  Plus I did not even have my contacts in my eyes to focus on long distances!     But anyway, I took three photos and this is the best of the them.    I did not see this many stars with the naked eye!   

I told the hubby that we needed to spend a night at his hunting camp since there is absolutely no light up there.  And now there is no moon out so the stars would really shine.   We might do this before the moon starts making its appearance again.


I put the photo I used yesterday to make the abstract in the extras.  It is a pittypat squash photo turned sideways and the color changed some.   I saw these at the little farm stand we stopped at in North Carolina.    I thought the green spots looked like tattoos on the yellow!