Better to Burn Out

(This is the sun, not the moon)

View On Black

Shot while trying to capture a sunspot - I'm going to need a neutral density filter or welding glass for any luck - this was f/32, 1/8000, ISO100.

It's Full of... stars...

Note: View large to see how many stars you never really get to see with your eyes.

I took this New Years Eve, 45 minutes before midnight, (despite the oops-I-forgot-to-set-my-camera-clock-back EXIF data). I thought about taking a photo as the ball dropped... but I'm just not that moved by our time system rolling over one of its digits :)

Now solstices... well now, that's a completely different matter all together!

I can't decide if it's upsetting how few stars we can see with the naked eye, or how many more we can see when we use a camera.

This was my first real test of my new tripod. It's real windy, but my tripod didn't budge. I hung a twenty pound sandbag from it, just in case. If there's any movement in this photo, it's my deck, not the tripod :)

One note about the photo - I heavily adjusted the white balance to compensate for all the yellow put out by the artificial lights. This makes just about everything look better - more natural - except the stars. They're all skewed more towards blue than they actually are. Some of those actually appear reddish, some white, some blue.

Equipment:
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* Canon 40D
* Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens
* Bogen/Manfrotto 190XPROB Tripod Legs
* Bogen/Manfrotto 322RC2 Grip Action Ballhead
* Impact Saddle Sandbag (27 lb Capacity)