A couple of nights ago, I had the intentions of staying up to see the Perseid meteor shower at it's peak, and also do a bit of milkyway photography.
It was an unusual night as it was the first clear night we've had in months, it just seems like cloud after cloud, I set up the telescope in the garden, and sat there waiting for it to get dark, it was so wonderful to see all the stars as the slowly appeared as the hand of the night tightened it's grasp.
As I was waiting for the sky to darken, I thought I'd try and do a video of the moon as it passes through the lens of my telescope, I really do like this, although I did have to speed it up 5 times...
It's been so long since I have spent time out looking at the heavens, and it's something I needed, it really is a good head clearer, just looking up at the stars.
I did see something weird though, a bright light, flying west to east, I don't think it was a plane as there were plenty around, leaving contrails and seeing flashing lights and the sounds of the engines, this one just looked like a really bright star, flying over the sky, no sound, no contrails, no flashing lights, initially I thought it may have been the International Space Station, but it wasn't, as I found on further research, the only thing I can think of is that it may have been a satellite, but I'm still not convinced, I didn't take any pictures as the telescope would have been very difficult to get it in frame and keep it there to get a shot, as my camera was still attached to it at the time, I don't have a tracker on my scope.
By 10.30pm, I was absolutely shattered, I have been having problems sleeping again and it had caught up on me, I was considering driving to somewhere a little darker to get some shots, but instead, I decided to pack my things up and go to bed.
Little did I know what I missed....
If I had managed to stay awake, I would have got a triple whammy, one, the milkyway core, two, the perseids metoeor shower & three, the aurora borealis. Yes, the aurora was on show again for the second major sighting this year, I'm glad I saw the aurora back in May though as I don't feel like I've missed out as much this time round.
I thought I'd share these moon shots with you and the video too, I really hope you like what you have seen.
Thanks for reading...
Stay Humble...