Vacation. 
Finally.

I spent nearly 10 days of my 12 days total vacation time waiting for clear skies and already thought that I would have no luck this time. But fortune struck and on august 2nd I saw that even though my Sky live app showed me a 20% forecast for this night, that there were clear skies for around 3 hours right after the moon hides behind the horizon. I seriously don't get this app. Sometimes it shows really low numbers even though conditions are really good. Well, I packed as much gear as I could onto my bike and waited for the night to come.
At around 10:15pm I drove 10 minutes from my campsite to a nearby field. The moon was still visible and was shining near the horizon. I had at least an hour for setup and preparations planed and was right on time. The location was perfect, unseeable for other people walking on the road, and with almost no obstructions until the horizon. Never before have I been able to see so  much of the night sky. I take a look at my watch, 22 ℃, and a slight breeze. There wasn’t a single star visible yet.

I had my mobile setup with me, my trusty full frame camera, the star adventurer and my 200mm telephoto lens. I also brought my comfortable chair, something to eat and some water. The Setup did not went as smooth as I had preferred, a local farmer was driving with his heavily lighted tractor round for round on the neighbouring field. Headlights so intense that I had serious trouble during alignment. Polaris was still so feint that it was really hard seeing it through the eyepiece whenever scattered light hit my polar scope. Around an hour later I was done. Frame in focus, with the intention to take 30 second exposures at 1600 ISO together with my quite large 77-58 mm fixed step down ring. I had more than 20 minutes left until astronomical dusk, yet it was already as dark as it uses to get at my local observation site at home.
And then I saw it. For the first time of my life was I able to see this gigantic dome that unfolded above my head. This huge, almost never ending spherical shape, hundreds and hundreds of stars, dim lines of light, all converging towards this dark center above my head. Never before have I had the chance to see this. At home I can barely see 30% of the night sky due to trees surrounding my usual observation spots. But here? That was different. This was an actual spherical dome. Right there, above my head. Does anyone know how big this dome is? I’m sure many of you have seen what I describe here, but I really don’t know what it actually was that I saw there. I know that the human eye can see around 50km depending on the height you are standing on during perfect conditions. Is this the dome that one sees?Lots of questions, even more answers, “I love this hobby.” I think to myself and keep enjoying this terrific view of a night sky I will not forget for quite some time.

Be my guest today, and take a deep look into cygnus. Enjoy the brightness of Deneb, and its calm not so intense counterpart Sadr. Witness the endless deep space that starts appearing behind the massive gas nebulae in the picture. Dive into the pitch black, fissure like shape below Sadr, or lose your thoughts while enjoying the eastern part of the north america nebula. Take the time to just think for a moment about all those worlds hidden in star systems and galaxies in this vast universe. Simply rest for a minute, before you do whatever you have planed to do next.

Enjoy,

the_author