I scouted this location, this particular setting once during the day. It looked different then. It was bright and lush with tall longleaf needle pines and a merry winding trail between small scrub palms. It was perfect. I was planning for the Milky Way to rise to a vertical position between the pines. I positioned it on my augmented reality planner until the scene looked just right. When night came, I set out to the same spot on the trail. I parked my truck and turned off the lights, the darkness sucked me in. I didn't want to use my flashlight so I wouldn't blow my night vision, so I resorted to the red light lamp I had, providing a feeble couple feet of distance as I started down the trail within the preserve. In my head, I replayed warnings of night wildlife that one should watch out for in Florida. I could hear rustling in the distant palms. It was calm, so I knew it wasn't the wind. In a panic, I swept up with the piercing light of my flashlight, breaking through the darkness and falling on glowing sets of eyes in the scrub brush. I swept it back and forth, finding several more pair. Oh Lort, what am I doing?! I gripped the flashlight as strongly as I gripped my little can of bear spay, telling myself that it could only be deer in that multitude, at least I hoped. I was relieved to watch the eyes bounce off away from me and eventually disappear, but not before I was greeted by another one of Florida's monsters... mosquitos as big as hummingbirds! I sprayed another cloud of bug spray around me as I quickly set up my tripod and camera, angled toward where the rising Milky Way would break through the trees. My first test shots left me feeling defeated. I had not anticipated the light pollution from far off cities to be this strong. The incoming clouds seemed to magnify it, almost destroying my exposure. Was this a wasted venture? After fumbling with exposures for fifteen more minutes, between swatting bugs and scouring for glowing eyes, I called it. I was hopeful one of them would lend to a good final image.

Here is the result, after a brief excursion into the Flatwoods Longleaf Reserve in Hawthorne, FL. I added some star diffraction spikes for a little more twinkle... to portray the tingling goosebumps I had from all the eyes on me that evening!

Click on the image for a larger version, and to see more in the Astro gallery. As always, I love to hear from you and appreciate the shares!

Longleaf MW