The Man Under Stars
This is my most recognised image, I was shortlists for the Insight astrophotographer of the year with it in 2017.
I will always remember this as the night that I fell through the ice, I didn't know I was walking over water until I heard the dreaded cracking noise and then I was thigh deep. It's an experience I never want to repeat.
Prior to that incedent I was successful in capturing this photograph. It shows Buachaille Etive Mor being dwarfed by a sweeping panoramic of the milky way, if you look closely under the mountain you can see a lone man standing in the moor. I think it adds an amazing sense of perspective to the image. Glen Etive can be seen on the left and Glen Coe is on the right
Orion Nebula and the peak of Buachaille Etive Mor
I first took this photo on the 29th of October. I was not happy with the data I captured which was really frustrating as Transport Scotland had shut the road over night so the light pollution was exceptionally low. So I returned on the 8th of November to take more images,
This is stuff that I do know.
I took this photo this is taken at 400mm from the carpark… so no wild daft stories this time. It was just me and my dog Po that had found a bottle and literally spent the entire night happily chasing it around the car park in the dark I remember all these posts from people worrying about hypothermia in dogs, it was about -2 with light wind) so I would invite him into my one man tent and he would just stare at me glumly until I let him out so he could continue to chase his bottle around the ground again.
At that time of year I started imaging at midnight and tracked Orion across the sky until it came into this composition and then disappearing behind the mountain around 5.30am, I used the narrow band filter IDAS NB2 that images ionised oxygen at 500nm and Hydrogen Alpha at 656nm selectively. While I did capture some full wavelength images, I ended up really liking the effect the narrow band filter gives so ended up using just them.
Stuff that I don’t really know but If I parrot off from Wikipedia I’ll sound really smart.
Orion nebula is evidently a 24 light year long collapsing gas cloud that is forming a star. A large part of my frustration of this image was trying to bring to life the intensity of the core which is so bright it is incredibly difficult not to loose all the information in the photo, but you can see the light reflecting from the gas clouds that are facing the centre of the nebula. I can see why M42 is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. It always shows something but yet there is always so much more to explore in this area of the sky.
dawn brewing
I had realised that an interesting story really helps a photograph. So I thought of the dumbest thing I could do was buy a 40 year old Land Rover for £1500 and it will break down all the time and I can write about! well it didn’t work out like that and it cover 1000 miles around the highlands flawlessly and then the clutch went on the driveway just as I got home! This image what the cover for the sky at night magazine, sadly now I’ve sold the land rover and miss it dearly.
the core of the milky way
Sometimes its not about being super clever, in this case is was just being lucky enough to be out in an exceptionally clear night.
Dun na Cuaiche and the north American nebula
I’ve always had a love for the watchtower at Dun na Cuaiche, in the grounds of Inveraray castle, so it was always going to be one of my first subjects.
I needed to calculate the precise time that the North American Nebula would rise behind the tower – that turned out to be 12.36 am. Now that I had the time, I could calculate the precise coordinates of the location where I needed to stand.
Drawing a line on the map lead to the bathroom window of Inveraray Castle. After a slightly awkward phone call, they very kindly gave me permission to set up just outside – it later became clear that the bathroom window was frosted – and even went to great lengths to make the Castle as dark as possible for me. I’m very thankful, because it meant I was able to pull a lot of detail out of the Nebula.
My initial plan was to stay until around 2am, but I was really stunned by the images I was getting and actually ended up staying till around 4.30am, even though I was getting frozen (photo of the state of my rig in the comments.).
I’ve also included a video. My initial plan was to have the nebula rise behind the tower, almost framing it. However, I soon realised that the nebula was just insanely beautiful, and I wanted it to stand out on its own. These telescope mounts need to be pointed exactly north and my rig easily weighs around 20kg. Realising time was of the essence, I picked up the entire rig and started crab-walking across the green so that I didn’t lose my polar alignment. I was semi-successful: I did manage to get a frame with the composition I wanted. It was a terrible image and badly out of alignment, but it gave me something that I was able to align my images to once I had done my polar alignment properly!
Glenfinnan viaduct
The Glenfinnan viaduct under the stars. this was taken back in January facing south west. It was the first clear night on the tour that I did. I remember being tense wondering if I was going to be a window for the shot I wanted and the weather forecast kept changing. In the end it was clear for couple of hours between 2.30am and 4.30am. Afterwards I when to make my breakfast and was approached by a young stag presumably loured by the smell of my breakfast!