And this is why I think we all need to get out under a clear and...

And this is why I think we all need to get out under a clear and relatively dark night sky once in a while. I was just looking up in wonder, setting the tripod with the D750 down once in a while to take a 30-second exposure. I wasn’t really thinking about what would be in the shot other than having my gear in the foreground–the focus isn’t great in this one, but that doesn’t really matter. It wasn’t until this morning, looking through a set of these, that I immediately saw Cassiopeia (that W asterism toward the top left) and the double star cluster in Perseus below. And from there my eye just follows that ramp of stars in the constellation Andromeda to the right. If you walk up those three stars angling out from the end of my scope (just to the left)–one more step and you’ll land on that softer smear of light. That’s M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. If you look along the left side of the scope where that brighter red LED light emerges, there’s a wedge of stars, like a slice of pizza, with the point closest to the scope. That’s the constellation Triangulum. There’s a dim dot of light up from the point star, angling toward the scope. That’s M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. All of this was in the sky above me–above all of us in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s so much more in this shot, but I would need to draw lines and write labels. What’s actually going in this shot–I mean, with my telescope, mount, cooled monochrome cameras and narrowband filters? I’m in the middle of taking 70 four-minute exposures of a large HII region in the constellation Cepheus, which is above Cassiopeia–partially, with some of it off frame. My astro blog: https://SaltwaterWitch.com