Unbeatable

It has been such a very long time since I have been to a dark sky site (nearly 4 years), so given that it was going to be a clear night, I set about finding out where the closest Dark Sky Discovery Site was to us.  Turns out, it's just short of an hour away at Beacon Fell Country Park.

Fortunately, Corin was happy to come with me, as I know better than to go traipsing around in the dark by myself.  Aside from not knowing what sort of crazy people lurk in forests at night (I mean people like me, who don't see anything wrong with freezing in order to get a glimpse of the milky way), the fact that I am inherently clumsy means that most likely, if I had gone by myself, I would probably have slipped and broken my leg or something daft.  As it happens, aside from trapping my finger in the camera tripod, I didn't do any serious damage to myself.

What a glorious thing to be able to see the Milky Way, with the naked eye.  I have seen constellations that I have never seen before, because our vantage point from home just doesn't allow me to see to the horizon, or anything lower than about 30 degrees elevation.  Added to the fact that the moon wasn't up yet and it is on the wane, close to new moon, there wasn't any ambient light at all.  Well, apart from the odd car that appeared in the car park and then realised that we were there and so they drove off again.  Couldn't possibly think what they might have been intending to do there....!

This shot is looking south/south west-ish.  The shots on the extras are looking north/north-east-ish and one that is overhead.

Next time we are taking a flask of soup, a couple of chairs and a blanket.

If I do nothing else this weekend, all is well because I have spent a couple of happy hours with the husband, looking at the magnificent sight of our galaxy and the universe beyond it.  It's good to be reminded of how insignificant we really are.