Hawaiian Sky

One of the things I was most looking forward to on our trip was taking nighttime photography.   The second night we were there the sky was clear and out we went with my camera gear and tripod.  As I went to set up my camera on my tripod I realized I forgot my adapter which holds the camera onto my tripod!  I almost cried, I couldn't believe for forgot my adapter!  But as you can see I did manage to solve my problem by picking up a cheap tripod at Walmart the next day and try again.  It barely did the job and my camera fell off it once!  No damage to the camera just my nerves. 

The photo above is one my favorites of the Milky Way and was taking on a scenic overlook along the highway north of Kona looking south.  The light you see to the bottom left is approaching traffic.  I was able to time a few shots so I didn't get the cars bright lights. Now this spot has other challenges and that was the local critters!  As I was setting up I noticed Tim flicking bugs away from my tripod...on closer inspection I realized they were 2 inch long cockroaches and they were everywhere!  I wasn't going to let a little bug ruin my evening so I just ignored them...except when they ran over my foot!  I did a little 'happy dance' when that happened.

The next photo shows the Big Dipper upside down between the trees below and Polaris ( the North Star) is at the bottom of the photo. This was strange to see as I am use to seeing the Little Dipper high in the north sky tipping over and pouring into the Big Dipper.

It was fun to have the palm trees in the foreground of some of these pictures.  I really wished the Observatory on Mauna Kea was open so we could have experienced an evening sky watch with experts who could have answered my questions! I was excited to learn that I could see southern hemisphere stars there but not familiar with them.  Something for me to brush up on before my next trip that way. :)

This last one is looking south early in the morning, I took most of the photos with the trees in the foreground at 4am.  There were a few other people out star gazing as well and it was also a good time for us to get our laundry done lol!