night sky

Aurora Borealis in Pembrokeshire

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Friday May 10th felt like it had been a long time coming; I used to go out and take pictures a lot at night and on several occasions over the last decade or so I have ventured out especially because there was aurora forecast this far South. When I have been out on those nights I've had a nice time squinting at the sky but more often than not have come home with pictures showing a slight pink colouration and not much else. I went to Iceland a few years ago and came home with some amazing pictures of the Northern Lights in their natural habitat but never thought I'd see such a powerful display here in Pembs.

pembrokeshire aurora

I headed to the North coast because I've always wanted to get some shots of aurora at the harbour here. I had a go a few months ago when cloud ruined the chance but seeing it was clear and even a nice temperature outside I had high hopes given the reports that contained exciting phrases such as 'huge sun spots', 'solar flares', 'coronal mass ejections' and a 'huge geomagnetic storm under way'. I arrived at twilight and it wasn't long before it was possible to see a pale band of light across the sky which although not that impressive to the naked eye, I knew would show up on the camera and was a good indication that there was some activity. As I jogged over to the other side of the harbour, the night had become darker and arriving out of breath at the top of the steps I could see more impressive pillars of light in the sky. The next hour or so was spent dashing from place to place, trying to enjoy the awesome display, trying to make pictures and cursing the fact I'd forgotten my headtorch, only brought one lens and the fact that my tripod has gone lame in one leg. When things (and I) started to calm down a bit I stood a while and watched the moon dropping towards the horizon whilst gentle bands of light undulated silently in the heavens above a hushed sea.

My gosh it was lovely. Truly one of the wonders of nature. I'm not sure how many reminders Gaia has to send us that the greatest things we see on this planet are not created by us but by the forces around us. I'm not so sure these days that knowledge is power or even sets us free as it feels like there is a lot to be gained by a regular humbling served up by nature that lets us feel our insignificance in this universe as our distant ancestors would have felt before we could explain it all. Would we not be better off feeling a little more fear of our ultimate powerlessness and mortality? The same greens and pinks we saw in the sky on Friday are to be found on the carapace of the tiniest beetles or in the plumage of the birds in our gardens whose interests we are doing such an awful job of protecting. Anything of beauty that humans create is always poor in comparison when we really stop and look at it and it's way past the time we stated treating the planet with the reverence it deserves.

These shots are pretty much in chronological order from twilight and the first flushes to around 1am and the last remnants of the more powerful bursts.

International Dark Sky Week at Roch Castle

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This week has been International Dark Sky Week. Here in Pembrokeshire we are lucky that we have several recognised Dark Sky locations in the county but also, many areas are fairly dark compared to more densely populated (and lit) parts of the country.

International Dark Sky Week is a weeklong celebration of the night. This year, IDA is encouraging people around the world to come together online to celebrate the night and engage with authors, creators, scientists and educators whose works have been vital to the movement to protect the night from light pollution.

There was a time when I spent quite a lot of time stood out in the dark but these days I rarely do night and time lapse photography as it’s by its nature fairly time consuming and there are plenty of technical obstacles that mean results are far from guaranteed. But with recent clear skies and Roch Castle on my doorstep (and currently unoccupied) I left the camera merrily clicking away in the grounds on a couple of different nights. Unfortunately, on the first attempt, cloud rolled in and spoiled the view of the sky although I quite enjoy the texture of the mackerel clouds scudding across the scene nonetheless. As with any first attempt, lots of lessons were learnt so when the forecast looked good a couple of days later, I returned and managed to get a clearer night.

Below are several videos from different nights and a couple of stills. The first still is the star trail image that I created from the frames that made up the time lapse on the cloudy night, the second is one frame from a previous trip with a crystal clear sky and the third is the star trail from the clear night time lapse. The star trail images are made up of over 300 frames all stacked on top of each other to show the movement of the stars (more accurately the Earth rotating beneath the stars) In the first star trail image it appears that due to all the gaps in the clouds the stars peeked out enough to show the trails and that classic wheel shape as they appear to revolve around the Northern Star. It was quite a pleasant surprise as the time lapse video suggested that the stars would be hidden behind the clouds! The clouds have given it a purple haze and slightly uneven trails but I’m still pleased with it. The third image is the star trails from the clear night with venus (I think?) fading as it disappears below the horizon.

If you’re keen to have a go yourself, check out the detailed article on Night Photography by Pixpa, covering the basics such as camera equipment choices, various techniques and some more detailed tips for night photography. It’s useful to have pages like this saved so you can refer back to the tips as it’s difficult to remember everything when stood in the dark!

A note on recent changes to the night sky… We have been blessed with good weather during this strange lockdown period and these events have conspired to offer great chances to go on long walks. The other night, gazing upwards we saw a string of satellites and I realised I'd not seen them before in all those times over the years when I'd been standing in the dark with the camera on a tripod. I had a google when I got home and was pretty shocked at what I read. The satellites are part of the SpaceX Starlink which are a series of 60 satellites designed for providing internet coverage. The eventual aim is to have nearly 12000. The night sky transformed for the foreseeable future just so people can use the internet!? It's really got me angry and seems like an attack on something sacred. It may seem like an overreaction but for me, simply taking time to stand and stare at the sky on a clear night gives a sense of our place within the universe and knowing that the sky remained largely unchanged from the times when our oldest ancestors did the same was a humbling experience. To see man made objects up there feels wrong although for example, seeing the ISS speed across the sky is acceptable to me because it represents a sense of international cooperation and a furthering of knowledge but to see a string of satellites racing across the sky to enable people to have better internet services seems like a less than worthwhile sacrifice. Another more serious issue is the difficulties it leads to for astronomers who find their field of view is obscured. but as space based projects become less exclusive I guess we will have to expect that the night sky will no longer be the tranquil sight it once was.