Obligatory moon shot!

After a warm and cosy hour's sleep, I forced myself to get out of bed to catch this rare occurrence. I think UK has been a bit unlucky with lunar eclipses recently. America seems to have got them all. The clouds cleared for me, but friends just down the road had a different story. I composited 6 shots through my 8" SCT to get this one, plus co-added and blended in a non-saturated moon. I tweaked the saturation and sharpened a little. Beautiful sharp stars with this technique!

Kielder Water

We went on a drive up the spine of the UK to Kielder Water - and took advantage of the dark sky park status. These are some pictures we took on Monday night. It was pretty dark up there, but the cloud was rolling in. We stopped at a view point off the South side and got some simple long exposures of different lengths and focal lengths on the Canon 1000D with just a tripod as the moon was setting. I've processed a little in photoshop/paintshop. Spot the 'moon-dog'. The milky way shots didn't come out well as the lens misted up very quickly! The observatory at the top of the hill at the far end was a very welcoming and fantastic little place. It's an innovative design - almost like a jetty with two fairly roomy observatory domes along it's deck.