This last week my family and I took a trip to central Texas. One of my daughters had an activity in San Antonio, and we were in the mood for some peace and quiet and starlit skies. We stayed at the Starry Nights Bed & Breakfast. The accommodations were excellent, the surroundings peaceful and quiet. The kids had fun playing with our hosts' dogs, hiking the nature trail, playing on the swings and treehouse, and watching movies. We saw deer, a fox, a jackrabbit, the lizard who lived next to the porch of the cottage, and hawks soaring above. Two of the deer in fact gave me a scare on our last night as I was coming out in the dark to pick up equipment. I scared them, too.
I was able to do some imaging at night. The skies are beautiful. I could see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon. In Cygnus, the galaxy's glow reached at least the tips of the swan's outstretched wings. The weather reminded me only a little of a trip to the Texas Star Party a few years ago when the event was held in central rather than west Texas. On my first night at TSP that year, the skies were dark and clear. I was rolling through my small scope and binocular list looking for M51 when ... huh? ... the stars all disappeared! Clouds! The stars did not come back for at least three days, and I ended up leaving early. Last week, though, I usually had until 1 or 2 in the morning before I was clouded out. Four out of our five nights were cloudless until then.
The image above of Antares & M4 was taken with the 400D through a 50mm f/1.8 lense at f/2.8, piggybacked on the Orion 100m f/6 and the Meade LXD75. It is a single, 60-second exposure at 800 ISO. It has been subject to some (but not much) brightening and color enhancement. The clouds were just beginning to roll in from the southeast. They hadn't reached Antares yet, so I figured I still had some time.
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