Day 9

From Iowa north of Colo, the waning gibbous moon rises in the east over fields of corn speckled with wind turbines. The rain has made unobstructed views of the celestial sphere in Iowa a rarity this summer and although it will be a bumper crop, it hasn’t been a bumper year for star observation. Iowa is second only to Texas for most wind capacity installed, but first in friendly people, as I was stopped on the side of the road shooting this photo two cars stopped to ask me if I was having car trouble or if I needed any help. I shot this photo as part of a project for the Astronomy 120 class I am taking at Iowa State University. We start every day with the Astronomy Picture of the Day and a discussion of what’s happening in the picture.

I went out tonight to shoot star trails as part of an extra credit project for Astro 120, there were too many clouds, and I don’t have a good way to do extremely long exposures so this is what I got.  I’m pretty happy with it and if you look closely there are star trails.  I wonder how long of an exposure I need to get a polar spin.  On a side note, Iowa is too nice.  Two separate cars stopped to ask me if I was having car trouble when I was shooting on the side of the road.