My one-year anniversary of deliberate stargazing!

A year ago, January 28, 2012 was the day I learned that my point and shoot camera has a long exposure mode (15 sec). From then on, I've been spending "way too much time" (as my partner sees it) photographing the night sky. Although I did photograph comet Hale-Bopp back in 1997, today marks the 1-year anniversary of me taking a modern interest in the night sky, and photographing it with any real seriousness and patience.

To celebrate this skywatching milestone, I'm posting my personal favorite / best shots of year one:

The details of each shot are, unfortunately, scattered throughout my blog. I didn't want to link to each one because I want the link to show the larger image. Here is a brief description with links to the original posts:

Left to right, Top down:

1. Tripod Orion stack in DSS, 168 subs, 1.6s, ISO 1600 ea
2. Tripod Pleiades stack in DSS, 205 subs, 1.3s, ISO 1600 ea
3. Orion, Jupiter, Pleiades, 25s, ISO 800
4. Sorta pretty light pollution
5. November conjunction Moon/Jupiter
6. January conjunction Moon/Jupiter
7. Lightning with iPhone 4 Slow Shutter Cam app
8. Venus transit with iPhone 4 held up to 8" scope
9. ISS with Dragon C2+
10. My first point-and-shoot star trails
11. Won a trip to tour Johnson Space Center with Olympic gymnast Jonathan Horton
12. Local observatory viewing party for Venus transit
13. Color adjusted urban night sky
14. My first Andromeda stack in DSS, 318 subs, 1.6s, ISO 1600 ea