It’s been hot and hazy for the past week and the skies are murky at best. After a long hiatuses, I’m anxious to get back out under the stars. Since the skies are a bit hazy, I stroll outside around 10:00pm local time and behold, the skies are a little better than I thought.

Since photography is another passion of mine, I always wanted to try shooting the night sky. I don’t know why I haven’t tried it before, just busy I guess. So, I grab my DSLR and tripod and make my first attempt at astrophotography.

Not knowing what to expect, I setup my camera in manual mode, a Pentax*ist DS (a 6.1 megapixel camera) with an smc Pentax-DA 18 – 55mm lens set at 24 mm;  f/4.0; ISO 3200; tungsten white balance.

First test - image 1