Milky Way

One of the main reasons I have not been blogging recently is that I've taken what was once a feint affinity for the stars to a new level. I purchased a small telescope and started looking at astrophotography in a whole new way.



About 10 days ago I went camping in the beautiful New Forest just outside Southampton and while it chucked it down one day, by night the skies were clear of clouds, haze and other light pollution. The skies there are without a doubt the clearest I have ever seen them.

This image was taken looking Westish mounted on a tripod and fired with the Nikon remote control.

Without the tripod the image would have been very tricky to get right as it would have been far too blurry and remote control allowed the camera to shoot without being shaken by the button being pressed.

Photograph details: Nikon D40, focal length 12.6mm effective (18mm plus Digital King Wide Angle Convertor - 0.7 magnification), ISO-800, exp: 557.4 sec, f-stop 5.6