Man oh man. I got so pumped about trying to get some star photos tonight. All evening I was watching the cloudless/moonless sky thinking "tonight's the night to give it a good go".

I got all bundled up (how can the temperature drop this much? i was riding the outdoor skatepark in a t-shirt last night!), got the tripod, read up on some articles, got my phone with my apps, got out the door......booo.......clouds.

Oh well. They'll do.

Two apps I'm really starting to love as they relate to long exposure and star photography:

Google Sky Map - This is unbelievable. I can hold my phone up to the sky and it shows me exactly what stars/constellations/galaxies/etc. I'm looking at. Can't find Polaris? Search it and the arrow will draw you towards it. We might not have hoverboards but I'm pretty stoked that technology can do this.

Exposure Calculator - I've been finding this increasingly more handy. If you're planning to do long exposure photography (30sec+), this is a really useful tool to help gauge how long you might want to keep that shutter open. It helped with this photo for sure.