The first rewarding image on our visit was from my favorite species: woodpeckers. Here is a male red-bellied woodpecker pausing for his portrait, of sorts. He announced his presence the usual way: pounding on a tree with a fast-paced and loud tap-tap-tap.

During our entire visit, at least two brown thrashers went methodically back and forth from one fenced pasture to the other. Alternating between sitting on fence posts and electric wires, they eventually went to ground for food. As usual, I did not know what kind of bird this was until I flipped through my Peterson’s Field Guide while perusing my photos.

With direction from Jim, I took some photos of the near-full moon (last image of this post, below) to aid with a camera and light exposure calibration project he is conducting. This was the best image of the group and I am still disappointed that the craters are not really in focus.

This kind of low-light photography is challenging. While I have an auto-focusing, auto-exposure-metering, computer assisted camera and a state-of-the-art/ near-professional quality lens, I cannot image how people like Galileo managed to DRAW intricate and accurate images of the moon and the planets while peering through telescopes that may not be better than the optical quality of a contemporary soda bottle.