I am thrilled the night sky was so dark and there was very little light pollution in the northeast sky above Lake Cachuma. I was photographing the meteor showers and the Milky Way last week. This week, I am working on stacking images for a star trails image. I shot 377 images on just one camera. I haven't had time to look at the images from the other camera yet. However, this image has only 99 stacked images. When I stack any more than that, the stars obliterate the sky with light. I have not had this happen before! I hope the land north and northeast of Cachuma stays free of development and light pollution. Dark skies are a gift in Southern California. The federal government owns this land now. You can see the stars seem to rotate around Polaris, the North Star, as the Earth rotates. I used a wide angle lens, so the star trails look a bit oblong in the left upper corner, but it really should be circular. Work in progress.....

In the other image, I've circled a Perseids meteor and the Andromeda Galaxy for you to see. Once the images are stacked, you will not be able to see these.