All of the great shots posted on here–shot with digital cameras, cameras attached to 'scopes, stacked images, stitched panos, & all of the other tools & techniques we have now–made me think about how I used to do night sky shots back when I was a 14-year-old. This black and white photo was shot in 1978, using my mum's non-SLR 35mm camera and some Kodak Tri-X pan 400ASA film (count them, 400 units of sensitivity). The camera didn't have a shutter button into which I could screw a cable-release, but had a shutter lever instead. I'd tie the lever down with a piece of string and then remove the lens cap when I was ready to shoot an image on "B". I can't find the original neg so I scanned this old print that I made in my makeshift darkroom, aka mum & dad's bathroom, so long ago. It shows Crux & the pointers dropping towards the horizon and the lights of a small plane that flew across the shot. I didn't know the aeroplane was there until getting the film developed and making the print.
