Shetland Big Skies

Shetland has many attractions and one of these for me at least are the clouds. At this time of year the cloud formations are fantastic

These next 9 photos are down at Grutness looking east and this cloud looks like a giant iceberg

Looking west the clouds became even more spectacular and a short trip down to Jarlshof gave some good photo opportunities

Jarlshof

                                           Incredible clouds looking south to Sumburgh head

                                                 It was worth waiting 1/2 hour until the clouds collided

Hopefully more Aurora photos soon with the conditions underfoot a lot better after heavy rain

Moon Photography

The Moon is the most obvious target for astrophotographers, being the brightest and biggest object in our night sky

At its closest distance it is a mere 225, 700 miles away and at 252,000 at its furthest. Its great to capture the moon in its various phases. The photo above is around 3/4 full and shows off its craters to great effect

The one above photographed with a Nikon D7100 with a 800mm lens and the internal tele-converter giving a magnification of 1500mm as it has a cropped sensor

You can have the best equipment but if the atmospherics are unstable you will not get a sharp photo. This doesn't mean if it is still where you stand we are taking many 100's of miles up

                                      A typical photo with a 500m lens on a crop sensor camera

We have had a supermoon recently and people seem to get carried away with this, after all its only about 16% bigger. It does have a big effect on the tides and in Shetland it was very noticeable

Finally got an opportunity to capture a halo around the moon, this one was present for over an hour until the clouds moved in

For more information and photos why not join us on Facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter - just send a request to join.