Taking astrophotos can be a challenge – you need to be in the right place (dark skies) at the right time (little moonlight) with the right weather (no clouds) at the right time of year (the Milky Way is only visible in the warmer months of the Northern Hemisphere). Fortunately, all of this worked in my favor on my backpacking trip to Quartz Lake in August, letting me take a truly dream come true photo of Mars and the Milky Way together in the night sky. There was a reason I lugged all of my heavy camera gear up and over a mountain pass, and this was it.

After a long day at a conference, I joined several of my coworkers for dinner on the patio of a restaurant in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. We were all exhausted, but it had been a good day for everyone. I had brought along my camera to take some photos at the event, and just happened to have it sitting next to me at the dinner table. That’s when I looked up and saw the moon rising over the top of 111 Huntington in the background. The combination of blue hour twilight, the moonlit sky, and the distinctive roof of Boston’s “R2D2 building” made for an unforgettable photo.

I love Pagosa Springs, and on one visit in December, 2011 I decided to try taking photos of the night sky using a rented 24mm f/1.4 lens. This was the first time I had taken night photos, so I learned a lot of valuable lessons on this trip. The biggest: finding a shot at night is much harder than finding one during the day.