Stars

Praying for clear skies

One thing that surprises people who stay here is just how dark it is at night and you can see millions upon millions of stars. I just love looking up at the stars, something I could never do, in most of the places I have lived.

When the theme for my photo group a couple of weeks ago was “sky”, I decided to get out there and take a picture of a beautiful starry night.

Never having taken a photo of the night sky before, I did a bit of research. It all looked simple enough and out I went on what turned out to be the only starry night that week. It was a total failure.

I couldn’t get the camera to see what I was seeing, no matter what I did to the settings, not helped by the fact that you can’t see anything on the blooming camera in the dark! Back to the drawing board, or should I say - more research and a proper set up of the camera in daylight.

Orion over the forest

Then of course the rain set in and not a starry night to be seen.

While photographing miserable skies I came across the little angel above, who must have sent up a prayer for clear skies to return and I managed to capture Orion over the forest opposite our house, but too late for my sky-week photo, besides the moon was too bright anyway, not to mention the settings that still need some tweaking.

Stars over the house

A clear night was promised for last night, so I was out again and managed a view of some stars over our house, not a brilliant photo, but the settings on the camera are starting to be approximately right and at least you can actually see some stars, even though I haven’t a clue what they are called. The moon was full so there was a lot of light pollution – note to self to do this kind of thing next time on a new moon night.

I never realised there would be so many problems being a star photographer..


For information on holiday accommodation where you can see millions of stars at night with or without a camera click here.