Likewise, I've only started to use it recently and its got a lot of rubbish on there but they're are some really really good people on there, this VirtualAstro guy is brilliant if you like your space/astronomy stuff.

1800 views now, wonder if I can hit 2000 by midnight...

Ended up going to Druridge Bay on Wednesday with a friend, its just a little way up the Northumberland Coast and not too difficult to get to which was rather handy as I'd never been there before.  Originally we went out to get a few photos of the northern lights but there wasn't anything to be seen which was a shame, so instead we just did some normal star scape photos which really I'd never done much of before just the odd attempt whilst doing other things so it was a first for me.  Didn't help that there was a fair bit cloud about but there was enough of gaps in it to get some photos and it was blowing a gale constantly for the hour we where there.

Reasonably happy with the results, few things I've picked up on that I need to think about next time, mainly to try lowering the iso as the shots are a little noisey, I'll have to up the exposure time which will be a bit more awkward but I should be able to go to 60 seconds before seeing star trails and I need to make sure I do a test shot and look for a level horizon, dunno how I missed that one as I usually do.


Druridge Bay Milky Way by russellcram, on Flickr


Druridge Bay Milky Way by russellcram, on Flickr


Druridge Bay Starscapes by russellcram, on Flickr

I'd done some star photos before in the past but they never came out too well either, wanted to give it another go and after getting some photos of the northern lights and well these have turned out alright so I'll definetly be doing it again at some point.  Key seems to be getting away from the light pollution fairly easy for me, these were taken about a 20 minute drive away.

Saw this guys video ages ago and just watched it again last week, has some good advice in it.

And this week's photography related fun and games.... wire wool spinning


Spinning Slide by russellcram, on Flickr

More to come, just done a quick and dirty edit on this one over lunchtime at work.

How?

Its basically some wire wool in a metal whisk attached to a dog lead, you light the wool and spin in round and take a long expsoure picture of it.

So its suprisingly easy, I saw it on a guy called PhotoExtremists youtube channel a while ago and finally got some wire wool and gave it a try but you do really need 2 people, one to do the spinning the other to fire off the cameras.

I've got one, but its not the easiest to set the camera away, light the wool and then get spinning still possible though.

Nice work mate, one of the things I like with wire wool, is the deflections of the sparks off of other objects