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Firefly Trails After a beautiful sunset on a clear evening, the temperature stayed warm enough for the biomass of insects to set sail in search of their targets. For the deafening hordes of mosquitos the target was me; the mild-mannered fireflies were in search of each other. I was trying to get the arcs of the southern stars reflected in this calm side pool of the Minnesota River. This exposure caught them and more. Fireflies left their own trails as they flashed briefly while cruising through the field of view. The near ones leave short trajectories, while the more distant ones make staccatto marks in their characteristic firefly-green color, a color not found in any startrail. Other things to note in this picture: the bright section of the Milky Way leaves a cloud-like smudge as it moves across the sky, not to be confused with the sodium lighting from the dam facilities a few miles beyond the horizon. The star trails themselves are modulated: they all show a thinning at their 3/4 position, and then a fading away at their westward tail. This is due to the lens fogging over slightly, clearing, then fogging over completely as the temperature dropped. It was enough of a drop to fog the optics, but not enough to still the mosquitos, a combination dreaded by the region's amateur astronomers.
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