This photo was taken on January 22, 2001 on a hilltop near my home in Colfax, CA. It was originally going to be a 15-minute exposure, but 13 minutes into it a police car (with the obligatory high beams on) comes driving up, so I quickly close the shutter. He wants to know what I'm doing up here on private property (not mine) in the middle of the night alone in the dark. I show him my camera & accessories, and he seems satisfied that I'm harmless enough. I decide not to mention that he might have just ruined my photo with his headlights. As he drives off, I realize I may be in luck - the camera was pointing directly away from the road he drove in on, a fact that indeed saved the photo.

Visible in the picture are Coma Bernices, Leo's tail, and Ursa Major's back foot.



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