Sailing the river

I stepped outside last night to check for low green haze on the Northern horizon (not expecting to see any, way too much light polution). But I looked up whilst out in the direction of Cygnus, and promptly lost myself in the immense arch of a dim yet clear milky way. I was amazed that even not being dark adapted (having not more than a minute before stepped out of the house) how much I could see. After a few minutes I tracked down to the south, following the shining river of stars and could make out the split where the dark bands run through the middle.

WOW!!!!...

I'm sure, but it was in peripheral vision, that I caught a Perseid whilst wandering along the ribbon too.

Whilst I was amazed with the view, I also had the 450d and kit lens at 18mm mounted on my EQ1 and captured some widefield subs of 3 minutes each... f/3.5 @ISO400 (I think I got it wrong in the border)