Star Watch

I am out at Nancy Lake.

It is dark. It is cold. It is quiet.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch... I walk out into the snow and break the silence to take a photo of the little lake house and stars. I can't adjust my camera settings in the dark.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch... I foot it back inside to get some light, adjust camera to all manual settings that I think will work: f/4, 30 sec, ISO 400, focus to infinity.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch... I am back outside... beep, beep, beep, beep... the camera is ticking off the seconds.

My eyes are adjusted to the deep dark night light now. The Milky Way is a broad band of cloudy white. The Aurora is not out tonight, but the conditions are much better than Anchorage, 40 miles to the south.

The LCD on the camera back is now my flashlight and is blindingly bright... times up.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch... back inside the warm little lake house...blip!


**
Pine
**