
The long summer days up here in the Pacific Northwest means that you are in for a long wait if you are doing night astrophotography. The sunsets at around 9:10 this time of year, and you have an hour and a half before the night sky lights up. Some patience is required to get set up and wait for the sky to get dark. I often thought it would be fun to have the best of the Milky Way show up in winter because I could photograph for a few hours before dinner. No matter what time of year you get to photograph at night, there is something amazing about watching the end of the day and the rise of the night. It must have been something to see long before electricity. The glow of the Seattle skyline runs the horizon, where anyone looking up might only get to see a few stars. I feel that we miss out on a lot of what connects us to something bigger than ourselves when we are trapped in the lights of progress; after all, we all sit under the same sky and dream.