Galloway.
16th & 17th February 2015
The chances of getting any kind of astronomical shot, especially something like the Milky Way are very much dependent on the weather and how much light pollution there is in the area you are shooting.
Well we know what the weather had been like on this trip but the forecast was predicting a brief clear patch on the night of the 16th.
The route home could be diverted to include Galloway. Britain’s first Dark Sky Parks.
By the side of Loch Doon, deep within that dark sky area is the reconstruction of a castle which once stood on an island before the valley was flooded for a reservoir.
A plan emerged to combine some light painting with a hand held flash unit with the sort of exposure that would be needed to show the galactic plane.
What I didn’t notice until processing the images was our nearest neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, hurtling towards us on the right hand side of the shot below.
Don’t panic though.
We have a few more years before it gets here.