One of the highlights for me of our trip to Everglades National Park was getting to photograph the Milky Way for the first time in Florida. It definitely takes a little work, some practice, and some luck with the weather. I made another attempt in the Big Cypress National Preserve later in the trip but was blocked by a lot of clouds. This time of year the Milky Way is visible Between about 3-5 AM give or take. The first night of our trip I left the tent about 3 AM and drove down to Pahayokee Overlook. I took several shots but was not seeing anything. I finally got the right settings and focus on my camera while avoiding the mosquitoes and was able to see the Milky Way. After that I took several straight forward Milky Way shots. Once I had taken several of those, I started to play around and add light using flashlights or eventually the car. Overall I am pretty happy with the photos and want to try to do this more often.

The first two shots are of the Big Dipper as seen from our campground. The second one is out of focus but shows up better.

The rest are all the Milky Way.