Last night was supposed to the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. Unfortunately, best viewing was forecast to be cut off early, because moonrise was not long after midnight. We went out anyway, hoping to get something, and knowing that skies in our area are anything but dark, even after driving miles from the city.

So...while the adventure was fun, the results were disappointing. The combination of light pollution and "heavy air' (high humidity) rendered my shots of the sky more like blue hour landscapes. Even reducing exposure (eventually by three and a half stops) tamed the noise, but rendered only the three or four brightest stars visible, which would not have bode well for meteors, most of which are of only very marginal brightness. The Milky Way was not visible, even though it was in a darker area of the sky.

So...we have marked in the "book" that any night sky work is going to require more travel, and we are considering an excursion next year to a true dark sky site. We will try for scheduling during one of the several meteor showers.

I hope that others who were discussing their plans had better results and will perhaps share them with us, either here or in the gallery.

ORpilot, if you have Lightroom, try the following with an unedited Raw file of your star shot:

1. Turn on Remove Chromatic Aberration in the Lens Correction dialog to remove fringing around the stars.
2. In the Develop module's Basic settings: Increase Contrast to 100.
3. Decrease Highlights (up to -100) to limit light pollution.
4. Increase Whites (start with 50 and play around).
5. Lower Blacks (start with -50 and play around).
6. Move the color Temp slider towards blue (to taste) and then play around with the Tint slider (to taste).
7. Try a minor exposure adjustment.
8. Add Texture, then Clarity and finally Dehaze to taste.
9. Add Vibrance and subtract Saturation to taste.
10. Use the Graduated filter with a lowered exposure setting to burn where needed.
11. Adjust the Tone Curve to increase Highlights and Lights, while lowering Darks and Shadows to taste.
12. Lower noise by increasing the Luminance slider in the Noise Reduction dialog by 15 or 20 (this will reduce sharpness, so be careful).

This is not exhaustive, but may help. Almost all adjustments are negotiable to suit your own taste. Good luck!