Wouldn't this lead to a build-up of salt in the soil itself? At some point, that's bound to cause problems... They don't call it "salting the earth" for nothing.

I've done that with a moderate number of exposures.

In my experience, it didn't do much to make it look like a longer exposure. That may be because of the light pollution where I was, or the relatively small number of exposures I was toying with. It does, however, clean up some of the noise in the pictures. Not really an issue when you're only using ~20 second exposures, especially if you use a dark frame and a bias frame. For longer exposures, though, the noise starts adding up, and multiple exposures are a must.

I'm still saving up for a nice telescope and mount, so I don't have much experience with high end stuff - mainly just pointing my camera at the sky and shooting right now - so take all of that with a grain of salt. Give me a year to save up the money I need for a nice 8-12" SCT, a guidescope, and a few other things and hopefully I'll know more.

Also, I hate to double post, but make sure you lock up the mirror on your camera if you have that option. Mirror slap is never good. I just picked up a nice Manfrotto tripod/head, but I still think it takes a few seconds for any vibrations to completely settle. Locking your mirror up should take care of that. It's a minor detail, but one worth mentioning.

1) It's been years since I did any work with film, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. I've just got a DSLR that I use now.
2) ~20 seconds. If you go very far beyond that, you'll end up with trails instead of nice clear shots. 30 seconds is passable, you'll just end up with tiny, tiny trails - probably not that noticeable unless you look closely. You may be able to stretch that out a bit more if you have near-superhuman vision, a geared tripod, and a steady hand, but I wouldn't count on it. That's not a bad thing though, there are some great images done that show the movement of the stars. Not every picture has to be tracked in order to be worthwhile.
3) Personal preference. I've taken some pictures at 18mm that I loved, and some at 200mm that made me just as happy. Experiment, and see what turns out catching your eye. Everyone has a different sense of aesthetics. What works for me may not work for you.

For any pictures you do take, I highly recommend the Astrometry group on Flikr. It's a bot that will match up your images with a massive database covering the night sky, and tag major features in your images for you. I certainly don't know everything in the sky I'm looking at when I decide to take a picture, so being able to upload it and have all the major features identified is incredible. In my experience, the people behind it are great as well, and very willing to share the datasets they use.

That said, if you want to get serious about it, you should look at picking up an equatorial mount. It's high on my list, right after a nice intervalometer.

You're assuming there would be paint.

FTFA: "The base contains power and data lines and is overlaid by the electronics strata that contains solar cells, LEDs and supercapacitors which would produce and store electricity while the LEDs would "paint" the surface with light."

I can't argue with most of what you said, I just thought I'd point that out.

To be fair, that tells you when it will be overhead. You may still need to break out a compass with an inclinometer to find out where to actually expect it, and that can be a bit of work I suppose.

Of course, if you can get your bearings, you can make good estimations using nothing more than your own hands. Last time I tried (it's been a few years, come to think of it), I was able to estimate alt/az to within about 3-5 degrees... Not as good as many, but good enough for most things. Not everyone seems able to figure that out, though.

Oh damn it. Please ignore the screwed up quote tags. It may be early in the day for most of you, but my schedule is reversed, so this is the time for drinking and being sleepy for me.

IRV has lots of problems. Condorcet Methods are much more likely to give us results that we can live with, in my opinion. I really like the Schulze Method - it's currently used by Debian, Gentoo, GPG, KDE, Wikimedia, and many others.

It may or may not be a token gesture, but it certainly makes me smile to read the White House's new Copyright Policy:

I'm a gun owning, cryptography loving, card carrying member of the ACLU. I'm against "assault weapon" bans, and feel that the 2nd amendment should only extend to nuclear/biological/chemical weapons (with reasonable limitations to keep weapons out of the hands of the clinically insane). I have been teargassed and pepper sprayed for protesting outside of a "free speech zone". I've been searched without probable cause while citing Terry v. Ohio - a case which ruled that cops can pat you down for weapons, but not search you further. If you bothered to read what I had written, you'd also see that I voted third party (Libertarian, in this case, even though I think Barr is a dick).

FISA was a huge disappointment. I was seriously considering voting for a Democrat for the first time until that vote was cast, it made me swing back to third party instantly. I never said that I'm all about Obama, just that I believe his administration is an improvement over McCain/Palin. As an example, just look at the nomination of Dr. Chu - do you really believe that a McCain administration would have made such a wise choice?

Okay, let's say that we expect a standard of 10, that's what we consider suitable. Neither a 3 nor a 7 meet the standard. That doesn't mean that 3=7.

Nothing in life is perfect. Inability to compromise is the downfall of Libertarians and Greens everywhere. Both have some great ideas (in my opinion, anything those two group agree on is as good as gold - social issues mainly), but the all-or-nothing attitude that they share keeps them from being taken seriously.

Oh come on. I'm so sick of that argument. Every vote matters. I'm as fed up with mainstream Democrats and Republicans as anyone, both tend to have major flaws... That said, do you really think that McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden are equal? Even if I don't agree with them on many issues, I'll take someone with a constitutional law degree over a senile old man and a far-right nutjob any day.

That said, I've voted for a third party all of my life. I've never lived in a swing state, so my vote won't change the outcome anyway. Does that mean my vote was wasted? Absolutely not! I vote for the third party that is most likely to get 5% of the vote, a requirement in order to receive matching funds during the next cycle (see the Public Funding of Presidential Campaigns Brochure). I recommend that everyone who lives in a solid blue or red state does the same. More voices and more opinions brought to the table will only help us.

Saying that every vote is wasted is absurd. If you don't care to educate yourself on the issues or involve yourself, that's one thing. By all means, stand aside and let those of us who do care take care of things. But if you give a damn, either stand up and be counted or shut the hell up.

By which, of course, I mean scope. Allow me to take this moment to blame the beer, and preempt any grammar nazism.

I've been tooling around with the idea of pitching a night sky proposal to the mayor and city council here... I've got some connections, and could at least get listened to. I've been doing a lot of planning based on the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance's Night Sky Program... It looks like I've got some additional resources to go over now, and a great lead-in to it all.

I fondly remember seeing flashes of the aurora from my childhood home. If I was to go there now and look to the north, all I'd see was streetlights and haze - and it's still a small town. I feel for those who've never had the chance to view a truly dark sky, it's a wondrous sight. If you ever have the chance, when you've got a cool clear night ahead of you, drive out as far away from it all as you can (In Oregon, I recommend heading out to the high desert, out on BLM land - people in other locales will have to find something suitable for themselves) - near a new moon if you can manage it. Watch the sun go down, and the sky fill with stars and planets, satellites both man-made and natural, and take in the amazing scape and wonder of it all. If you've got a telescope, great, take it along - but if not, you'll still have quite a show. It's good for the soul - and with natural light becoming ever more pervasive, there's no time like the present.