What a summer it has been! I have been haunting my usual happy places: the North Shore, Ithaca, and the celestial skies. Most of my photographic work has been of astronomical objects – this since purchasing a SeeStar 50S, which is essentially a star camera – have had many adventures with this and I must admit that this is where my interests in astronomy and photography have taken me. Such are my latest photographic wanderings. It all lies at the convergence of my interests in optics, in the beautiful, and the sublime.

But I awake to the realization that today is the Autumnal Equinox, the Mabon, the moment when the night is precisely as long as the day. Here in the Northeast it is cold and rainy creating an earthiness to the world – always evoking our seminal myths of the forest. So I want to share Figure 1 – First Sign of Fall – a nod to this moment of most perfect celestial balance.

Still when i took this photographic, the insect marks on the leaf disturbed me. But I realize that no summer is ever perfect!