Got another morning out under the stars before coming home from last week's leave. We spent the first night in Aptos, then Sun-Thurs down in Morro Bay, then Thurs and Fri nights we were back up in Aptos, near Seacliff State Beach. I headed down to the beach at 0315 on Saturday morning, and since I had remembered to fully charge the batteries this time (battery symbol was already flashing when I
started shooting on Monday, I could afford to spend extra time nailing the focus. Also finally figured out better Photoshop stacking procedures, so I got better stars at the edges and in the corners of this one:
![Image](https://www.galaxieman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_1593-Edit-200x300.jpg)
Click to embiggen.
17x 25-sec exposures, 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400.
Posting from my computer instead of my phone, I can actually get the link address for the thumbnail and post the smaller version vice the larger one above. There's more light pollution up near Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay vice Morro bay, but since I managed 2x the light per exposure, and over 2x the exposures, I still like the result.Back to the salt mines this morning, though since we got back early enough yesterday for everybody to catch a nap, I don't feel like I need a vacation to recover from my vacation this time.