[Leica] Wyoming

[hlritter at bex.net (Howard Ritter)]

Thanks to all for the suggestions so far (and yet to come?) regarding  
online printing services.

Actually, I think Montana is the Big Sky State, but Wyoming's skies  
aren't any smaller. To behold the clear night sky from a mountain- 
rimmed high valley with no artificial lights visible and no nearby  
town to light the sky is an unforgettable and ennobling experience  
that provides an instant connection with our distant ancestors, who  
saw the night this way all the time, as opposed to literally never for  
most of us. Wyoming is competing in my affections with Colorado and  
Washington. If my kid ends up going to medical school in Denver in two  
years, we'll move out there fer sher. Only partly because I'm an  
amateur astronomer.

I have uploaded one image thus far, of a subject matter hardly ever  
seen in the Gallery. I hope you enjoy it. I must add the qualification  
that it appears a little surreal, what with levels tweaked to remove  
skyglow and enhance the stars:

         
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/Wyoming/Wyoming+Milky+Way.jpg.html

The next time I go out there, it will be with a little equatorial  
mount for the camera that will allow guided exposures of maybe a  
minute each, at a lower ISO, with a slightly stopped-down lens and  
maybe longer f.l., and the final image will be from multiple images  
stacked and with dark frames subtracted and maybe flat frames applied? 
in other words, a proper astro-image.

Terrestrial photos to follow.

?howard