Twice a year astronomers head north to Kielder Forest to enjoy the dark sky as part of the Kielder Forest Star Camp. This year was no exception, bringing us the 9th Autumn Star Camp which included talks from a couple of members from our York Astronomical Society, a BBC television crew filming for The Sky At Night as well as some interest from The Guardian.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case with these things, the weather was not ideal, but I did get one good night of seeing on the Thursday.
Even the dark sky of Kielder is subject to light pollution, but here you can make out a very prominent Jupiter, the Pleiades and a rising Orion.
Here I just pointed my camera up towards the Milky Way, where there is far less light polution.
You can see a close up here of the Andromeda Galaxy. This photograph really reminds me of the early pictures I took of Jupiter. Just imagine the detail I’ll be able to get in the years to come! (If I ever get equipment like the very impressive telescope shown below…)
The larger versions of the pictures above have been uploaded to my Flickr page if you want to see the details.
For myself, no trip to Kielder Forest would be complete without a walk up Deadwater, which has some of the most amazing views! *
* and mobile phone signal…
