Spending the weekend on lake Pokegama (Po- Keg-Ama, not Pokey-Gamma) in Grand Rapids gave a nice opportunity to get some really dark skies for astronomy and astrophotography. The first evening was overcast until well past my bed-time. The second evening was pretty special.
Around 10pm, the milky way was glowing overhead, the constellations were hard to pick out as there were many more background stars than a London based sky-watcher normally sees.
![Ursa Major & Minor Ursa Major & Minor](https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5604/15422351288_f312f8ae59_n.jpg)
I took some photographs, of course. The settings were 18mm focal length, infinity focus, 20sec exposure time, and remote control shutter release (to avoid camera shake).
![The Milky Way The Milky Way](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15608451105_91efd4df92_n.jpg)
![The Milky Way over the house The Milky Way over the house](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3950/15608443795_7f339a8cbf_n.jpg)
Alas, there was no northern light activity while I was there, it started up on the evening after I left.
All in all, a wonderful experience.