The constellation Cassiopeia. Taken with a 50mm lens. Cassiopeia is visible in the north eastern sky before midnight this month. The milky way roughly follows the diagonal from lower left to upper right.
(for the astro-geeks, that's the double cluster in the lower left )
Hi Andrew,
Have to agree with Carrol here i doubt anyone will come up with a shot that will beat that for size. Would have never had looked in that direction for a shot but that is what is good about the WA you never know what to expect.
Take care
Mark
Thanks folks, I was initially disheartened, since I didn't think I was going to find a nice butterfly or other macro-y letter in nature in mid-October in the north east USA. But then I remembered this constellation, and I always try to find a way to work my main photo-hobby-love of astrophotography into the WA or any photo contest for that matter It helped I had clear weather AND the time to do it, even though there was a 3/4 full moon glaring away.
Oh yeah, neat little tidbit about Cassiopeia-- if you traveled on a space ship to Alpha Centauri (the nearest star to the Sun, ~4 light years away), then looked back, the Sun would appear to be part of Cassiopeia, completing a zig-zag pattern on the left side of my image. Of course the Sun would be brighter than the stars seen here (mag 0.5, about as bright as the stars in Orion), but overall not as bright as Vega (Mag 0.0) or Sirius (Mag -1.1).
Hello Andrew,
This is a great take on the WA and a super nice shot. The stars of the constellation are very prominent and the "W" really stands out against the background stars. Did you have to do and special filtering or post processing to achieve this? I ask because when I've tried similar shots in the past and found it's often hard to make out the constellation because of all the other stars. I was using a much wider focal length so maybe that's it. Can you share any tips?
Thanks
-Nick
Very interesting shot. Love the "W". I also would like to know how you captured the stars so prominently in your shot. If it was the shot itself or PP. Hope you are willing to review your secretes.
A very nice take on the theme. I've tried to capture stars, but have yet to succeed. Unfortunately the city lights brighten the sky too much here--and I can't seem to get the exposure right anyhoo.
) 
It helped I had clear weather AND the time to do it, even though there was a 3/4 full moon glaring away.
