Moon

The Moon is a great subject to phoograph, being on average  273,000 miles away

All the photos here are taken on a full frame camera and an 800mm lens then cropped

with a 600mm lens

For aurora photos see facebook - Shetland Aurora Hunter

Moon & Venus

Only had a short time to set up before the clouds rolled in again

 The Moon with earth shine and Venus showed really well

 Earth Shine showing well in these last two

The aurora has showed for 10 nights this month but with lock down and that it showed about 1am not been able to get any photos.

You can see some on facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter

Warmer Aurora Glow

A few nights ago the sky started to clear, the wind had dropped and there was a possible Aurora starting.

I headed over to the west side to Bigton only to find that the cloud had started to roll in. I could just about make the Aurora out behind a small bank of cloud

It was always going to be hard for the Aurora to show against a 93% moon which had started to rise but not quiet showing where I stood

The Aurora was only at KP2 so not very strong but any Aurora is a good Aurora. At least the stars and Milky Way was showing.

Aurora Hunting is always better in September/ April as its a lot warmer.

The Night Sky Photography course is now full and I am looking forward to meeting everyone. But to keep up to-date join Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook.

#Shetland Aurora Hunter, #Aurora in Shetland, #Shetland, #Aurora, #Night Sky Photography UK

Starry Night in Shetland

No Aurora the other night but just managed to capture some stars before the clouds came in. Pleased to see one of my Aurora photos have been used by Shetland Accomadation Guide 2019

 Bigton Church

Sandwick Church

 St Ninian's Isle without the Moon

 St Ninian's Isle with the Moon out

Looking NW from Bigton

Looking south from Sanick, Sandwick

Moon Composite

Was hoping that we would have had some clear nights by now, already two or so weeks into the Aurora season. There has been a number of nights that the Aurora has been visible but it has been showing in the middle of the night

Also the wind has been a major problem with a number of days at Force 6 -7 so no good for photography often with heavy rain

So its been back to the computer and trying to be creative with the enclosed composite images, where two photos are combined.

People may not like this but it is often done in astrophotography, take star trails you might combine 120 images to create one. HDR often use 3 or 5 images to bring out detail in shadows or highlights

People also take multiple photos of stars or the milky way and combine to reveal more stars and detail

The last two photos are down at Park Hall near Bixter, an iconic place in Shetland.

A Starry Shetland Night

Although we didn't see an Aurora we did get some clear skies which revealed a multitude of stars

The Moon provided some nice light for the landscape, although some people prefer no moon when photographing stars I prefer about 30-40% full

The Moon was surrounded by a halo which added a bit more drama to the scene. St Ninian's always provides a good night time / daytime landscape

Light pollution is getting to be a problem everywhere, even barns(above) have powerful lighting which tends to stay on all night, wish they would at least have them on a sensor but I expect the wind would trigger them off on a regular basis

I love moonshine and the position of the moon just gave enough light to bring out the tombolo. Even shooting at ISO2000 f/2.8 15 seconds not too much noise is showing on the Nikon D610

The Milky Way was showing to the north west, above Ireland (yes we have one in Shetland)

Although it was very cold and windy I was pleased with the photos, no one else came down so I had the place to myself. With the Aurora getting less frequent due to the Solar minimum we will have to be content with looking at the stars, something I always enjoy doing. It never ceases to amaze me that you can photograph something that are thousands/ Millions of miles away and that some star have long gone.

Don't forget to join us on facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter- just send me a request to join