Lately I've been exploring the world of Astrophotography. This weekend, we decided to head up to the SDSU Observatory on Mt. Laguna which is about 1 hr east of downtown San Diego. Using a combination of Clear Dark Skies (to track the cloud cover), Dark Sky.com (to find a Bortle 4 or less area), and my Photo Pills app I was able to predict perfect conditions for the Milky Way on top of Mt. Laguna. The apps didn't lie! Conditions were absolutely perfect...new moon, little to no wind, clear skies and low 70's. When we got to the parking lot there was one other car with the license plate "SD Dude". We knew we'd be in good company. When we got up to the observatory there was a very nice couple sitting out under the stars and listening to the band "Stars of the Lid" which only added to the already surreal atmosphere...the dude abides. We got some great shots including a Pano of the Observatory with my Rokinon 14mm lens and a time lapse of a tree on the horizon with the milky way rising behind it. I have a feeling I will be going on many more of these adventures in the near future!
