This Picture is a composite of two photos. I combined the photos to tell the overall story of the evening. Although I feel that it only tells about 85% of the story at the moment the photos were taken. It still brings the wondrous experience I was enjoying while taking these photographs. This is not my first attempt at some astrophotography, but it is the first series of photos that came out reasonably well enough to enjoy. During my excitement, I did not notice that I had captured a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy until after I had returned home to view my works of art. (Milky Way Cluster Photo to right)

At a complete 180 turn with the camera, facing my vehicle, I was able to do a little light painting and capture the shadow of the trees in the distance. (Photo to left) There is also the star cluster known as The Pleiades captured in the photo. At the tip of one of the trees. Both exposures were about 2 minutes in length. What I learned from this photo trip was that 2 minutes is far too long to take a photo of the stars. They start to trail. I should start to learn to use the newly acquired star tracker. Light pollution at home is at its worst. so getting to places like Lassen Volcanic NP. is nice. it is just unfortunate that getting away from light noise takes about a 5-hour drive in one direction. Most any direction from where I live.