Green and Purple Aurora

Its always good to see the Aurora, but many nights are full of cloud. A few nights ago the cloud cleared allowing the green then purple shin through.

Tingwall is always a good spot, wide open with the water allowing for good reflections. Its a busy road both for cars north and south

Its a pity about the LED outside light up the valley which has only recently gone up. It is distracting and many more houses and barns now have permanent outside lighting. This site may well be lost if the Viking Energy wind farm goes ahead. The red beacon lights on top of the turbines will show up here even though the will be 10 miles further north

Looking south towards Scalloway and here on the left two large LED lights near the fire station and further along the streetlight which are also LED produce a bluer light. The council are just in the process of replacing all 4000 streetlight with LED lights

Orion showing about the boatshed

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#Shetland Aurora Hunter, #Aurora, #Shetland, #Tingwall, #Scalloway

Tingwall stars

Nights are now drawing out and we have very little darkness. The Aurora has been visible very late on but only captured by a few folk.

                      We had been visiting up at Tingwall and took advantage of a clear night with very little wind

The wind turbines cast a red reflection on Asta Loch, but to see 103 Turbines looking north would certainly be a blight on the landscape and would show up on every Aurora photograph so I hope they never get started

Although not completely dark I like the blue sky and you can also use a lower ISO which helps reduce noise.

Looking south to Scalloway, light pollution is clearly visible, especially now LED lights have been installed

                                                                                                   Looking west

          Just waited for car headlights to light up the old vicarage which adds a lot of depth to the photo

                                                                                      Another looking West

To keep up with the vents in the Shetland Night Sky join  us on facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter.

Don't forget my new blog ww2preserved.blogspot.co.uk with many Shetland links

22 3 17 Tingwall Aurora

Although not as active as the night before it was still a good  Aurora show under a clear sky at Tingwall

Using the car headlights to light up various parts of the landscape is a good idea to add an extra dimension to the photo

The reflection in the loch from the stars and colour of the Aurora also gives depth

On a previous post on Tingwall, lots of cloud was present reflecting the Light pollution from Scalloway and Lerwick but on this occasion with clear skies the south gave a more natural colour

Did you observe Earth Hour on Saturday 8.30 - 9.30 ?

Using car head and tail lights adds a bit of a focal point

Looking north to the old Manse is one of the classic views in Shetland.

I will be offering a new 6 session course on Nightscape Photography for Shetland Adult Education around October 2017 (in Shetland) message me if interested

If you haven't does so, please send a request to join the facebook page - Shetland Aurora Hunter. Lots of great photos and interesting information

Quendale at Night

Following on from my last blog, i managed to get out the other night despite the strong winds. This time down to Quendale.

Using the same combination of the Sony A7s & the Samyang 24 mm F1.4 lens i spent most of the time photographing the old house just beyond the farm. I stopped the lens down to F2 where it is sharper and again shot at 13 seconds using ISO 3200.

Light pollution from Sumburgh airport was very evident - south east of the farm and also Lerwick to the north.

Very pleased with this combination, seems a sharp lens, just make sure you get a good copy.

Don't forget to join Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook

Milky Way

Until we moved to Shetland we never had a chance to see the extent of the Milky Way, this was all down to light pollution. Even if we went to our darkest spot, mid way between Sheffield and Manchester, in the Derwent Valley we would still see light pollution. Then moving to Shetland we could find darker areas, when combined with a new moon it gave us a chance to see the superb Milky Way and to photograph it.

When you consider that the Milky Way may have between 200 - 400 Billion stars it can be mind blowing.

                                               All photo from St Ninian's Isle, Shetland

When conditions are right you can see the milky area which consists of dust and gas.

While we may be able to get impressive photos from earth nothing will compare to those of Gaia which is a giant telescope launched towards the back end of 2013 and will transmit a map of the Milky Way on its Billion Pixel camera in a few days time on the 14 September 2016- so keep a look out for this.

I was pleased to capture 3 satellites in this photo 

Cosmos 332 Rocket

Cosmos 371 Rocket

Cosmos 2233 Rocket

(all within 33 seconds SSW)

The best time to see the Milky Way in the northern hemisphere is September - March, the darkest time. Unfortunately this is not the time when the brightest part is over the UK, the brighter Galactic centre is over head April - August when we are experiencing long hours of daylight, especially in Shetland with the `Simmer Dim'.

What you see with the naked eye,  is a white milky area to the southern skyline but the camera can pick up lots more detail with its sensitive sensor. You will need a tripod as the exposure, depending on whether you are using a wide angle lens with a full frame, crop sensor, bridge or compact camera can vary tremendously but can be anything up to 35 seconds

The more light that is captured the better, resulting in a more detailed photograph with less noise.

There are Dark Sky Discovery sites around the UK-
http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/dark-sky-discovery-sites/map.html
A map shows where the best places are to see the Milky Way, but amazingly none are listed in Shetland.

A recent survey claims that 60% of Europeans and 80% of Americans cannot see the Milky Way due to light pollution

For more Shetland Photos see my blog www.amazingshetland.co.uk