Located above Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower offers panoramic views of San Francisco. Built during the Great Depression, the tower features frescoes commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project.

Had fun exploring the city and taking this photo of San Francisco. I like this perspective because it juxtaposes this quaint residential neighborhood with the massive skyscrapers downtown.

The Len Turner Memorial Vista Point offers a view of San Francisco, running from Candlestick to the Bay Bridge. When I previously had difficulty focusing on San Francisco at night, I suspected my lens and teleconverter combination may have been the culprit. After switching to the TPO UltraWide 180, I realized that the problem was the fog. Even the portions of the City which were not obscured by fog, the moisture and strong wind rendered all the city lights into bloated dots. So, this cityscape needs to be reshot on a clear evening.

The Len Turner Memorial Vista Point is located on Ralston Avenue in Belmont, CA. Apple Maps had the wrong address for the location and sent me down Belmont Canyon Road.

While waiting for the July 4th fireworks to begin at the Huntington Beach pier, an even more spectacular display erupted in the adjoining neighborhood. I was surprised to see so many aerial fireworks. I remembered running around with sparklers as a child. No one was launching pyrotechnics to rival the pros. Seriously, this was more entertaining than the official fireworks show. However, after some research, the aerial fireworks may not have been safe and sane.

When most photos are captured in fractions of a second, spending an hour or more to take a photo feels like madness. That’s the reason why I never attempted to photograph star trails before. However, once I headed down the path of astrophotography, the calculation changed. Since I’m waiting for the camera most of the time, I could be twice as productive by setting up an older camera to take star trails. Since this was my third attempt, I was only willing to commit 30 minutes to the process. Also, I wasn’t sure what factor the 62% waxing gibbous would play in the final image. The end result turned out better than expected.

Antares and Rho Ophiuchi. Can’t wait for this target to move to a direction with less light pollution. It wasn’t a completely clear night. The light pollution illuminating the clouds doesn’t make it any easier.

Ever since the departure of Orion and Andromeda, I’ve been searching for a new target. The other night, I spotted Antares, the red supergiant, in the constellation Scorpius. I knew that Rho Ophiuchi was near Antares, but I didn’t bring a star chart and I was in an area with a poor cell signal. It was only after processing the Antares photos that I discovered that Rho Ophiuchi is in the same area.

During the second attempt, I waited for the rise of Antares. On the back of the camera, I could see the pentagon in Live View. Including the star above and below the pentagon ensured that I was not cutting off the image.

The classic view of Stanford University is from Palm Drive. From this behind-the-scenes angle, you can see the Stanford campus from a different perspective. The iconic Hoover Tower stands out and above all the surrounding buildings. The back of Memorial Church is also visible. Just follow Palm Drive, which is the vertical line on the left, down to the Quad. The Stanford Dish is not visible, but you can find the illuminated smaller dish.

The Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51) is pretty easy to locate. I targeted Mizar and Alkaid, the last two stars in handle of the Big Dipper, with a TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5 lens and M 51 appears comfortably within the frame. I tracked with a MoveShootMove rotator. Stacked 30 frames at f/4.5, 25s and ISO 1600 in Sequator and edited in stacked image in Photoshop and Luminar.