Star Trails

Stars streak the rural Tuscola night sky Sunday night.


Stephen and I headed out southeast of town last night to shoot star trails. We needed an area with little or no light pollution. This was nearly impossible as Charleston gives off a decent amount of light, Champaign gives off a ton and all the plants west of Tuscola give off a ton of light. The photos still turned out pretty cool. This photo took 1024 seconds or roughly 17 minutes. The long exposure is how you get the star trails. The downside is that you get a lot of grain from doing a long exposure. I still like the effect. We're going to try it next time we go fishing out at Lake Charleston. There's really not much until you hit Effingham, south of Charleston and nothing east until you hit Indianapolis, so maybe the light pollution will be significantly less out at the lake. I've got a few more photos I'll post on my flickr page when I get them edited.

I have to admit though. There's something a little creepy about sitting in the middle of country road late on a Sunday night. Especially with another dude. The way stars reflect into his eyes....did I say that out loud?