Never give in, you can plan as much as you like, have the patience of a saint but you also need to be persistent.
Lat Friday (20 2 15) the weather had been changeable all day but bring in some great clouds. I was planning to get out at teatime to photograph the conjunction between Mars, Venus and a crescent moon. Around 6.30 GMT was the given time.
looking west from our house at 5.30 pm it did not look good, heavy black cloud gathered over the hill and the odd shower came over. I could have easily given up thinking it just wasn't going to be my day. However knowing that the west can sometimes be completely different to the east, i set off just after 5.30 and arrived at Bigton on the west at 5.50 pm
It still didn't look good, a quick shower came over and the black clouds still lingered over St Ninian Isle but then the sky brightened and just before 6 pm the moon showed , then the very bright Venus and by 6.05 Mars put in a show
This all lasted about 10 mins giving me just enough time to get a few photos. At first I put the tripod up but it was just too windy , no where to shelter from this westerly wind. So I moved onto a bean bag placed on the car window and started to fire away. I set the camera to manual and decreased the exposure , at ISO 500 i managed to get 1 second at f/5.6
The wind picked up battering the car but every now and again it slowed and i rattled a few more photos off. The light was changing and the clouds rolled back in so after 10 mins that was that and again the rain came just as well as i had put the camera in the bag
Its easy to think that I would have seen nothing, looking at the weather conditions in Sandwick on the east. The weather forecast was poor as well but i have come to just taking a chance and not giving up even though the odds are against getting any photos.
Just be prepared to go at short notice and be ready for a break in the clouds, the location at Bigton looking over St Ninians Isle has been good for a couple of things recently and the view from the top of the hill is superb
The next time Venus and Mars come together will be 5 October 2017
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