The Night Sky

Whilst I was out in France i took the opportunity to do some astro photography - the night sky in Chouppes is fantastic.

My favourite shot.  Taken on a 30 second exposure from the garden of my Mum and Dads house. You can make out the milky way cutting through the night sky and through the constellation of Cassiopeia.

 I took this one to show the Pleiades aka the Seven sisters.  The above shot shows what they look like normally..

On this shot you can see the grouping better.  There is slight 'star-shift' on this shot as it is zoomed in and on a timed exposure.

This shot is looking over the roof of my Mum and dads house and you can make out the 'W' shape mid picture of the constellation Cassiopeia

In this shot Cassiopeia is more clearly defined.  It looks like a 'W' on it's side.

This constellation is called 'the cross of Deneb'.  As you can see it clearly makes the shape of a cross or crucifix in the night sky.  The star at the top of the cross is Deneb which gives the constellation it's name.  The Bright star on the right of the cross is Vega.

I took this shot to show what the cross of Deneb looks like normally with the backdrop of the other stars

Everyone knows this constellation..The Plough, aka Ursa Major, aka the Great Bear.

I took this one as it showed the different colours of the stars.  Without light pollution the stars take on a different look and feel.  Cassiopeia is visible on the right.  (Tilt your head left and look for the flattened 'W'.

This is the same shot as above but I have annotated it to show where the Andromeda Galaxy is.  It is one of the furthest visible objects to the naked eye on clear moonless nights and is a brilliant object to observe with binoculars.

It is a spiral galaxy approximately 2,500,000 light years away and is the nearest galaxy to our own, the Milky Way.

A professional shot of the Andromeda Galaxy