I began with a photograph of the Milky Way and a question about how many stars it contained. The image was already something to look at. I wanted to understand more of what I was looking at.
The first attempts at detecting stars left me asking about the dense region through the Milky Way. From there, the question grew: could I match points in the photograph to a star catalog, work out which part of the sky the camera was facing, and build a view that let me explore the connections?
That led to experiments with brighter reference stars, image alignment, blur, and a catalog overlay that followed the photograph as I zoomed. Each step introduced another detail to get right. A point of light in an image is a candidate to investigate; a convincing-looking overlay still needs checking.
The interactive sky project grew out of that process. It is a way to keep exploring the original question. The photograph remains the starting point, and the catalog matches need to earn their place beside it.
I like the connection between the two activities: taking a picture because something is beautiful, then staying with it long enough to find another reason to look.