Thanks to the full moon

dark took a lot longer to arrive this year.

It wasn't until four minutes after ten that the first rocket went off.

The wife and I were parked at our new "usual" spot... behind the movie theater, and just across the highway from the launch site.

Good seats. Other than being blocked in by the truck left by some other folks who had an invite to watch from the roof of the theater.

And here I was once more, with a new digital camera that I had to experiment with all over again. Some settings worked well.

and some did not.

But it was fun, and loud, just the same. And no mosquitoes, for some reason.

They had a bunch of new ones this year. The wife was happy I nailed a shot of the heart...

but they also had a bunch that crackled like giant sparklers.

But perhaps the best were those near the end of the show that threw out flaming projectiles, some whistling as they flew.

There was also the exciting one, which failed to get off the ground at all.

And then, 22 minutes after it began,

it was all over.