I've always enjoyed staring at the night sky and just letting my mind run wild. Last summer I went camping w my teenagers and while we were laying in the bed of the truck I started messing around w my phone camera and taking photos of stars. One of them I was adjusting the exposure some and something I did made the galaxy just show up. I've been hooked since then more or less.

I spent a lot of time with a tiny tripod taking photos w my iPhone. I've been saving money for a decent camera, glass, a tracker and all the assorted shit that comes w it. I finally started pulling the trigger on all of it a couple months ago. I've spent the last few weeks here and there learning how to set everything up and the last couple days practicing. I have some really fast wide angle glass and a cheaper kit zoom lens that I'm going to try using too. Going to try for galactic center photos and some nebula photos.

I'm currently rounding everything up to load up and head out. I live in a city now, so it's like Bortle scale 8-9 but I'm about 45 miles from a Bortle scale 2 location. The weather is supposed to be really good for star viewing, plus the like 1% moonlight should be my best chance at some beach milky way photos for at least another month.

It's such an insignificant thing to most folks but I'm so looking forward to this, not just the photos but all of it, really.