My Camera's Are Not Gathering Any Dust

[Speed]

I was asked? advised? not to let any dust gather on my camera's. Well, here's the proof that I don't!

My recent lightning shots were taken with the Coolpix 5700. I took 70 "frames" with it on the night of the 11th, and 98 "frames" with it on the night of the 18th. Definitely no dust gathering there.

Here are some shots taken with my N80. One of them has two satelite trails in it - that's a shot of Coma Borealis. Another is a shot of Lyra with my K1000 in the foreground - I was taking a hour long exposure of Polaris (the North Star) with the K1000. These were all taken on my back deck. All exposures are 30 seconds. The birght green in the trees is from a security light.

[coloradoamigo]

All your astrophotography shots are so cool. Like Penny said, keep them coming!!
One question, how late do you stay up to take these shots? ;)

[Speed]

And its a good thing you're keeping all three of your cameras at the ready. You've been getting a lot of good shots lately and, I am really enjoying all your work (and your daughter's work too!) -- don't stop now. Keep 'em coming.

Best to You,
Penny

You are much too kind!

I appreciate your enthusiam and your encouragement. It means a lot.

You do realize of course, that this post was for you?!

:-)

[Speed]

All your astrophotography shots are so cool. Like Penny said, keep them coming!!
One question, how late do you stay up to take these shots? ;)

Your comments are very much appreciated!

As for how late I stay up: It usually doesn't get dark enough to take astrophotography shots until 9 pm this time of year. I'm normally finished taking my shots in 10 or 15 minutes, depending on what I'm shooting. Ironically, I've stayed up later taking lightning shots than I have taking astrophotography shots. ;-)

I have done time exposures of up to 2 1/2 hours with the K1000. :-O
That usually makes for a late night: 11:30 to midnight. I'm posting that shot below this. The big drawback on using print film for long exposure astrophotography, is it starts to look like daylight. All the green is from lights around me. (Reciprocity failure is probably coming into play here as well.) In a 30 second exposure, you don't see them unless you've got a tree in the frame. Even in a 30 minute exposure, it's not too bad. But get to 60 minutes or more, and the sky goes green with print film. Which is why I've got a couple of rolls of Provia 400 waiting to be used.

Enough of the astronomy lesson. First shot is 30 minutes. Second shot is 150 minutes.