Lovejoy

Comet Lovejoy has been visible this month, the following chart below gives the flight path. Although the moon has caused problems early in the month




Watch this :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/video-incredible-cctv-footage-captures-meteorite-burning-up-in-skies-over-romania-9966972.html

Trying to photograph the comet was at the top of my list for this month but as usual the weather has been poor, with many days of gales, rain and snow.

Mid month provided a couple of opportunities the first though was a windy night and the photos came out poor. The second on Saturday 17 January 2015 provided a slightly less windy night, no light pollution from the moon and better photos although I am still not satisfied.

At least I manage to catch a bit of aurora activity.

The weather forecast is poor throughout next week, so that might be that as it wont return for 800 years.

Jupiter was also showing with its moons and although I took 25 photos before the clouds came in the one below as the best out of the bunch

No telescope was used only a DSLR most with the Nikon 18-200 mm lens

Christmas cheer

Even before the `Christmas Star' people have been looking to the skies, and the interest has become even greater since the arrival of digital photography. On Christmas eve I finally managed to capture some photos of the International Space Station. Bang on time, 5.20 pm it came over Sandwick very low heading towards to the moon from west to east. In Shetland it was a lot lower than down in England. 

The white line (ISS) is in fact travelling at over 22,000 mph and has been manned for just over 14 years. Its amazing that it has clocked up more than 1.5 million miles, that's the equivalent to 57, 161 orbits around the earth.

The white line effect hides the fact that it is larger than a six bed roomed house and weighs 925,000 pounds and has 8 miles of wires inside.

Pleiades shines in the night sky even through the light pollution (just to the top right of the house).

The aurora has been on a off for the last few days but cloud as usual has been a problem. In Shetland the Aurora is known as the `Merrie Dancers ' as they move across the sky. These photos taken on a very cold night looking towards Cunningsburgh

Estimated kp readings have been at 4-6 which means the the Aurora had been visible even in northern England, providing there was no clouds  present. In Whalsay conditions seem to have been better than the rest of Shetland judging by the photos that have been produced.

Still looking forward to seeing the amazing colours - reds & purples and a wider area when cloud isn't present. Sometimes the best way of finding the Aurora, is to point a camera to the north , the camera sensor can pick out the colours far better than our eyes, especially when any light pollution is present.

We started to go over towards Bigton but snow had fallen and it was becoming icy, someone further north in Shetland hit a patch of black ice which sent the car spinning 360 degrees. Its been unusual for Shetland to have these icy conditions but at least the skies are clearer.

Time Please- Intervalometer

Taking photos of the night sky involves long exposures and with most cameras only going down to 30 seconds exposure it means that you have to use some other means of controlling the time. Using a Timer remote control is the best way, this is also know as a intervalometer  which then enables you to control the exact length of time the shutter is open.

I would normally set the control unit up before going out to save time, although the display does light up so you can see what you are doing out in the field. In addition I should point out that it doesn't have an off switch so make sure you take the batteries out when you have finished otherwise you will have flat batteries when you come to use it again.You can normally pick these up for around £20 but wouldn't advise the cheapest ones.


You can also use the control to take long exposures without setting it up. Just slide the button up into the lock position then you can set the camera up for continuous shooting say at 30 seconds on the caera at f/4 for star trail photos. Having taken around 100 photos use Star Trails free software to combine them all into one photo

Shetland is having a lot of very unsettled weather with numerous gales hail snow and rain so getting out to take any photos is very difficult. I am hoping for a more settled 2015 and plenty of opportunities to get out to do some night photography.

Have a great Christmas and hope you get some clear still skies near you.Thanks again for looking at this blog, why not try my other Shetland blogs:

shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk
shetlanddream.blogspot.co.uk

Courses available

I will be running the following adult education classes in Lerwick

Introduction to Nature (Course code AL115)
Starts 19 January 2015 fr 6 weeks  9.30- 12.30

Last date for booking 10 December 2014

Digital Photography for Beginners (Course code AL116)
starts 2 March for 6 weeks f 2015 9.30-12.30 


Intermediate Digital Photography (Course Code (AL117) 
starts 27 April 2015 for 6 weeks   9.30-12.30

SANDWICK Courses

Digital Photography for Beginners (Course code AL119)
starts 2 March 2015 for 6 weeks 1.45- 4.45pm

Intermediate Digital Photography  (Course code AL120)
starts 27 April 2015 for 6 weeks 1.45-4.45 pm

A Chance

On Tuesday the sunset was superb, very red which led me to believe that this might be a good night for an aurora as the moon was but just a sliver, a waxing crescent only 13 % full, of so little in the way of moon light pollution

Checking the Aurora forecast it was indicating above average solar activity, possibly to KP 4 which should be visible from Shetland providing the sky is clear. It was a question of keeping an eye on the alerts and be ready to out at short notice. My intention was to go north above Cunningsborough the place giving light pollution problems in the past, that would leave Gulberwick then Lerwick further north around 6 then 8 miles away.

I had not done any recces around here so it would be guess work where would be best. Need to add this to my day list of venues to visit. I wouldn't have time to go far. I charged the batteries and prepared my kit, which included the dew busting kit.

On Monday the strongest solar flare was early, around 9 pm which was good but its seems that no one photographed it judging by the lack of photos on various Shetland facebook sites and even though I was out I didn't see it either.

 So back to Tuesday which indicating a KP 4 so off I went spending 3 hours out and again no aurora. You just never know so you can use the predictions as an indication but no guarantee of seeing anything, just go out and enjoy the night, there is always something to see even if you don't manage any photos. I was just setting up to do some star trails but cloud moved in and I only managed a couple of photos- o well there is always next time.

Just to show you how the alerts work, on Wednesday it was estimated at KP 3 between 9.00- midnight, yet the actual reading was a very low KP 0.33 at 10.30 pm.

Check this out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2848983/Holidaymaker-s-time-lapse-video-captures-incredible-moment-meteor-hits-Earth-s-atmosphere-explodes-ring-dust.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Moon Colour

When ever you see the moon it is compelling, you just have to look at it. The brightest light in the sky is hard to miss. You can on occasion see the moon in a different light or colour

                                                             Using different lenses and camera- see below for full info

                                                                                 Nikon D7100 + 800mm = 1600 mm

                                        D300 + 500 mm = 750 mm 

                                                                                              Setting as below

                                                                             Nikon D7100 + 800mm lens = 1600 mm

                                              D300 + 200 mm lens = 450 mm

When photographing the moon it is often better to start when its not a full moon, there is shadow say when its a 1/2 moon. Again here in Shetland the moon is also out during the day and it makes a nice change to catch it when its BLUE.

The best option to photograph the moon is to mount your camera on a tripod and use a cable release to reduce vibration. I manually focus the lens as in poorer light the auto focus doesn't sometime connect. Try ISO 200 to keep the noise down to a minimum and this will give you a setting of about 1/100 @ f/11.  You could also try high or lower settings as it all depends on how dark your site is, how clear the moon is and in what phase and where you are located.

Use the longest lens you have at least a 300 mm but longer if possible. Using a 300 mm lens on a DX camera (cropped sensor) will give you 1.5 x the length so equivalent to a 450 mm lens. I use a Nikon D300 and  a D7100 which has a built in tele-converter giving you 1.3 x + 1.5 x lens so using the longest lens I have this is a D7100+ 800 mm lens = 1600 mm equivalent giving a close up of the moon

Lights in the sky

If you believe every weather forecast you would never get out. For the last two days it has forecast overcast nights with showers but when i looked out it was completely clear with the stars shining brightly.

So Wednesday night, same sort of forecast but the weather during the day had been good, contrary to the day forecast. I decided that tonight was the night and prepared to go out somewhere around Sandwick . The weather was more that perfect for Shetland, clear, cold and very still only 2 mph. It was colder than forecast as the car dashboard warned of ice, so below 3 degrees.

In addition to the weather the moon was only a sliver and the cloud that was about, dimmed the moon light. While I set up i could see a pocket of cloud drifting in but as luck would have it it moved west and missed Sandwick.

I always do a test shot first at a high ISO just to check what will be in view. Pointing north would always catch some lights from nearby houses but I wanted a star trail shot of the church at Sandwick It was becoming cold and the dew point was low, enough that you could see dew on the car within the time I had set up. This required my new dew buster kit which had arrived from various points around the world.

The battery from China, the dew wrap from America and a connecting lead from Australia. I charged the battery prior to going out but I don't know whether it is fully charged or not as the colour and intensity of the red light does change, even after six hours- the recommended charge time is one hour.

Connecting up the new kit i slipped the battery pack into a small pouch and hung it over the tripod. Setting the Tokina 11-16 mm lens to 11 mm i started taking 30 second exposures at F/4 ISO 500. I rattled off 68 frames and combined with dark frames to produce the following shots. Still not fully happy so will try again soon.

While the camera did its own thing I got the binoculars out and scanned the sky, three meteorites shot passed all very bright. This is from the Taurid meteor shower visible from the 20 Oct - 30 November (around 10 per hour) with its peak on the 5 November.

 I picked out the milky way without any aid, the dusty lane of stars stretching across from East to West, I wouldn't have been able to see this in Sheffield. Pleiades looked inviting, its is a very bright cluster of stars easily picked out in the south east sky. Cassiopeia , the distinctive M shape could be seen directly over head, all good targets for future night sessions . Around 9.30 pm when the clouds had reduced in the north, a faint aurora was seen for around 5 minutes.