This weekend, we had the pleasure of spending two nights camping up along The Forgotten Coast of Florida, St. George Island. It was an especially wonderful treat for me because it is so much darker up there than what I can find in my area. I live in a class 4 on the Bortle charts, and St George is a class 2, dreamy! Looking up at the night sky, you can see the milky way with the naked eye so very well! I was beside myself. The first night, I spent shooting from the dock at our campsite, facing toward the gulf with St George Island breaking the horizon in the distance. The second night, we camped on St George and I pointed my camera off into the vast darkness over the gulf. The only thing visible on the horizon at that point were distant storms and a smidge of light pollution from what I can only imagine is Tampa (I'll have to verify that later).

As I sat on the beach in the sand and listened to nothing but the waves, I watched the milky way rise over me. I had my camera set to time lapse mode, catching images every 5 seconds so I could demonstrate the movement of it later in a video. I was truly enjoying myself, until I felt something wriggling and tickling my bare feet. I quickly shooed it off and grabbed my flashlight, only to see the innocent and shocked face of a cute little ghost crab. He hung out with me for the duration of my shoot, scuttling onto my blanket from time to time. At least I think it was him, there were dozens emerging from their burrows all around me, so it really could have been several different ones I was carrying on conversations with, but they didn't seem to mind.

I stayed out long enough to capture two meteors, the ISS passing over, and an airplane or two in the frames. Once or twice, the sky behind me lit up with lightning. When the clouds rolled in too thickly to see any further, I packed up and went back to the camper, happy with what I got.

There's more, but this is just a taste for you, the time lapse video for your enjoyment. CLICK TO PLAY, and see if you can spot the meteors or the ISS! If you miss them, there are still images of the meteors at the very end of the video. Visit my GALLERIES to see more photos!

Milky Way Timelapse Video

Forgotten Coast Meteor