Back in August, Don and I went out to take pictures of the Perseid meteor shower. Truth be told, we didn’t go far enough away from the city lights, but it was still a disappointment. I’ve read claims that the peak would result in nearly 150 meteors per hour. We saw maybe six in the two hours we were watching the skies.

Wanting to make the best of it, we took photos of what we saw around us and tried new things. From that process, I present you with this:

IMG_1019.CR2: 30D, EF 400mm 1:5.6L @ 91s, f/5.6, 100 ISO

IMG_1019.CR2: 30D, EF 400mm 1:5.6L @ 91s, f/5.6, 100 ISO

It’s the Pleiades, an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. I was equipped with a simple tripod, so pointing the camera at the sky and leaving the shutter open resulted in star trails, as you can see. The earth turns, taking the camera with it, so the stars trace a path across the image. The longer the lens, the more pronounced the effect during a given period. This image was exposed for 91 seconds.