Shooting the Milky Way, locations in North East England?

[steveatesh]

I’ve read that this weekend coming is a good time to photograph the Milky Way, I’m in the North East and wondering if anybody can suggest any good locations I could perhaps give this a try please?

I suppose I’ll need a foreground interest with the MW arcing across it, or at least that’s what I’m seeing in my minds eye!

Any suggestions welcome!

[Chicken Chaser]

Sycamore Gap Hadrians Wall? Maybe Roseberry Topping also although you might find too much light pollution in the south of the region. What about St Marys lighthouse or one of the many piers along the coastline?

[corozin]

Whoever told you it's the best time of the year to photograph the Milky Way was pranking you. At this time, the Milky Way is descending into the horizon so good photography of the core of the galaxy is not possible. Even more so up in the North of England.

The "season" for quality Milky Way watching is March-September, ideally about 1½ hours after sunset, visible in the South from where you are looking (so locations north of large towns & cities not a good idea)

HTH.

[steveatesh]

That’s interesting thanks! Actually it was a photography training session being ran by a “professional” to train us hobbyists. Said this weekend was optimal. Obvioulsy that’s more to do with ticket sales in that case.

Thanks so for that, I’ll wait until spring.

Cheers!

[ashleyman]

Winter is great for clear crisp nights for astro photographgy but as said previously Milky Way isn’t the best.

[corozin]

There's interesting stuff to try shooting this time of year, it's just the Milky Way isn't really one of them. The Leonids are along in a few weeks, for example.

[noell35]

AP magazine has an article on shooting the Milky Way this month, it's not great imho. I haven't tried to capture the Milky way and I'm not sure I'd be any better at it having read the article! The key thing that I took from it was that the best time is April to September. Interesting choice of article in October!

[Craikeybaby]

One of my mates got some good milky way shots this week, however they were at Durdle Door on the south coast.

[8bit]

This website is great for finding places with low light pollution:

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

[boxedin]

Kielder, Otterburn [1] or anywhere off the A68 once you get north of Corbridge.

Or into the fells heading away from Stanhope roughly towards the rear of Alston.

[1] check for red flags first.

Edited by boxedin on Thursday 19th October 13:47

[StevieBee]

8bit said:

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

Blimey! So, nowhere in the UK, basically!

[8bit]

StevieBee said:

8bit said:

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

Blimey! So, nowhere in the UK, basically!

It's not great certainly but the further north you go the better chance you stand. I live in Aberdeen, if I head about an hour west of here there's some pretty decent areas for low ambient light pollution towards the Cairngorms.

[corozin]

8bit said:

It's not great certainly but the further north you go the better chance you stand. I live in Aberdeen, if I head about an hour west of here there's some pretty decent areas for low ambient light pollution towards the Cairngorms.

I thnk that site is rather more accurate if you live in America, if you understand my meaning. I live on the South Coast and (fortunately) there is decent darkness on the coastline in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

As a rule of thumb you're ideally looking for locations which have 20-30 miles of uninterrupted space without major towns and cities in the direction you intend to shoot. On the coast that's easy, but if you live near one of the major cities the pollution is such that you really need to be at least 20-30 miles away entirely, as the light travels across the sky as well.

Even with that you're not entirely guaranteed results. You can be 20 miles from a large town and just a modest amount of high altitude cloud is enough to bounce the light straight at you...

Anyone who's done it will tell you this is a hobby that requires an awful of lot of patience and practice to learn what works and what doesn't. The results though are extremely rewarding when it all comes together.

[Gad-Westy]

steveatesh said:

I’ve read that this weekend coming is a good time to photograph the Milky Way, I’m in the North East and wondering if anybody can suggest any good locations I could perhaps give this a try please?

I suppose I’ll need a foreground interest with the MW arcing across it, or at least that’s what I’m seeing in my minds eye!

Any suggestions welcome!

As others have said, we're just out of milkyway 'season' but if you ever want a buddy for night shooting, I'm in the North East and enjoy a bit of astro photography from time to time.

[steveatesh]

Gad-Westy said:

steveatesh said:

I’ve read that this weekend coming is a good time to photograph the Milky Way, I’m in the North East and wondering if anybody can suggest any good locations I could perhaps give this a try please?

I suppose I’ll need a foreground interest with the MW arcing across it, or at least that’s what I’m seeing in my minds eye!

Any suggestions welcome!

As others have said, we're just out of milkyway 'season' but if you ever want a buddy for night shooting, I'm in the North East and enjoy a bit of astro photography from time to time.

Cheers will do!

[FurtiveFreddy]

This will help you as well: http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

I was in the Canary Islands a couple of weeks ago, expecting to get some nice shots of the night sky. It was rubbish, especially with the sand storms coming from the Sahara.

[8bit]

corozin said:

I thnk that site is rather more accurate if you live in America, if you understand my meaning. I live on the South Coast and (fortunately) there is decent darkness on the coastline in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

Well, as above I'm based in North-East Scotland but certainly I've found the locations I've used off the back of it to be decent enough. I can't say how they gather their information to generate the map, how up to date it is etc. and there are other ways of working it out for yourself but it's still worth a look.