When driving through the heart of America, in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee last week for vacation, we stopped at my Aunt and Uncle's house for a visit, and sat outside to enjoy the fresh mountain air, the cicadas singing in the night, and my gosh, the stars.  In the big city with pollution from lights and smog, one quickly forgets that there are so many stars in the sky to see.  The edge of the Milky Way galaxy spread across the center of the sky in reds and blues as if painted by a magical brush in the hand of God across a never ending canvas.  At 10:30PM, the horizon still glowed from the setting sun.  But there was no moon to veil the darkness in thin light, so the faintest of stars could stand out among the brightest.  Even satellites visibly moved quickly across the sky as a tiny point of white light.  This image captures a small corner of the sky, but it cannot compare to standing on a hill with arms outstretched and looking up, finger tip to finger tip under the blanket of the night sky, surrounded by the songs of insects and frogs and the peace in the mountains.

The Milky WayOn the edge of the Milky Way.

I took this picture on a tripod with ISO 3200, at f/3.5 and 18 mm for 15 seconds.  The hardest part was focusing because there wasn't enough light to really see anything through the lens.