Stars… So Many of Them!

Last night whilst talking to David on the phone, I turned off the lights in the laundry and once the phone had decided not to have the screen on, my eyes adjusted to the night sky a little. The laundry has a wall of glass, plus half the ceiling is glass as well. This means that if you sit on the worktop and look upwards, you get to see the Milky Way. And here, with no light pollution, you really get to see it.

So after Stuart had finished with a work phone call (calling the UK which he sometimes needs to do), I dragged him outside once we had wrapped up. It was cold out there and there was a good frost this morning. Last night was around or below zero again. There was some cloud in the sky to the west, but the rest of the sky was clear. We didn’t venture very far from the house. We will need to to get some better photos in the future and to get our power lines out of the picture, literally. But here are a few of the ones I took last night. I have also tried to identify the southern cross. I don’t know if I am correct, but….

The Night Sky from our parking area.
The Night Sky from our parking area.  Looking more easterly and the edge of our trees.
The Night Sky from our parking area.
The Night Sky from our parking area.  Looking NW I think, with some cloud and a shorter exposer.
The Night Sky from our parking area.
The Night Sky from our parking area and trying hard to get the Milky Way horizontal to capture more of it.
The Night Sky from our parking area.
The Night Sky from our parking area, and showing a more accurate orientation of the Milky Way.
The Pointers on the left (Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri) and the Southern Cross on the right.
The Pointers on the left (Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri) and the Southern Cross on the right.

I’ve never tried astrometric photography and I have only rarely tried night time photography, usually preferring low level light photography around sunset and sunrise.  And I was using the little camera without a tripod.  I was simply balancing the little camera on the mobile phone!  Once I have unpacked the big camera, I will try again with it and the tripod and see what we can get.  It should be fun.

If you want bigger versions of the pictures, you should be able to click on the picture and see a larger version (hopefully!).