[Look to windward? Naw, totally different thing.] Last night I went to Mt. Pleasant by the Cornell Observatory (the HBO one, that has nothing to do with the one that makes shows) with two friends to take some pictures of the stars, hoping to catch some of the shooting variety, since it's the peak time for the annual Perseids meteor shower. It also happened to be the day after the full moon so it was pretty bright and the night sky was pretty washed out. We saw a few with our eyes. I haven't reviewed the pictures in detail but they didn't look too inspiring (at least the ones pointed at the stars). Dianne took this picture of me while I was doing something. I was surprised there was enough ambient light to see my face, yet some of the stars in the background are visible and even some ground lights in the distance, with a handheld shot. The light reflecting off my glasses is from the full(-ish) moon. I wasn't posing. I didn't realize she was taking pictures. The uncropped, full-resolution version of that picture is here.

And HBO stands for Hartung Boothroyd Observatory. images/Photos/frank-perseids-sm.jpg