Some pictures of space

Spent last weekend in St Davids in West Wales, walking the coast, drinking too much, reading plenty and of course freezing my ass off looking into space. Took my telescope up with me (Dobsonian 10") and a Nikon SLR with tripod, in order to try to see and photograph some sweet looking skies.

(click these pictures to see the full versions)


The town of St Davids (West Wales) is visible in the distance, light polution being picked up in the long exposure. The brightest star you can see to the right of the center is Sirius and then following right from there is the constellation of Orion.

Really like the clouds on this one, the light polution seeping up from the horizon really makes a cool effect. Luckily the light was only rising from this point, behind me was just coast and a lot clearer.



Probably one of my favourites. The bright point to the right of the central telephone post is actually Saturn. Took me a while to actually find and pinpoint it with my telescope, but seeing the rings was amazing ! Really like the varying colours on the horizon too.





This was pointed towards the darker side of the sky that night. You can just see orions belt on the left with Betelguise above it. Need to learn some more of these star names really ! The long exposure picked up all the light coming out of the barn that was next to the house, the lights werent on for long so i had to be quick about it. Think this was around a 30 second exposure.





Another of my favourites just because of the darkness of the sky. On this side was just mountains and then coast and obviously sea so light pollution was not a problem. Can just make out Cassiopeia near to the center (the jagged looking constellation), bottom most star being Andromeda (our closest neighbour).



This was probably the biggest pain in the ass to take. Its a 5 minute exposure so i had to keep my finger on the shutter in an uncomfortable position for this amount of time, making sure not to knock the camera in the process was a struggle. Got what i wanted though, just wanted to see the spin of the Earth in the stars, as you can see each point of light has a little trail showing its path through the night sky. Shame about the fuzzy light pollution on the edges of this photo.

Telescope

Took my telescope out for the first time tonight, i have a Skywatcher Dobsonian 10", after plenty of research i decided it was the best choice for me and what i wanted to look at. Managed to get a peek at the crescent moon for a little bit before it disappeared, the detail on it was greater than i imagined cannot wait to see what a full moon looks like. Also honed my sights in on Betelgeuse (The supernovae waiting to happen) which had a golden twinkle in the night sky. What a great night, can only imagine what kind of things i'l be able to see on a clearer night or in an area of low light pollution.

Took a couple of pictures just to test out long exposures and my tripod. The camera im using is a Nikon D70 SLR. I took pictures of the Orion constellation because it was the most visible from where i was. You can see all the light pollution seeping up from Cardiff, but it does make for a nice effect.

Il post more pictures and videos up on here once i get the chance to get out there a bit more !