A party for one

Well, strictly speaking this photo was taken in the early hours of this morning. I was out looking for some Perseids (meteor shower appearing as rapid streaks of bright light in the sky). To be fair I wasn't sure what I was looking for exactly.

I got wrapped up and sat watching a good portion of the southern hemisphere (interjected with a few tree branches and whispy clouds). I spotted something, too fast to be anything else, a very bright line shooting across a good chunk of sky. WOW! It seemed to thrill me an unnecessary amount. As I waited for another my eyes started to adjust so the few stars I could see changed into an entire blanket of pin pricks. Could I capture anything resembling what my eyes were experiencing?

Soon enough tripod and camera set up, I led out, slumped in the beanbag on the patio, head craned under, trying my best to shoot and twiddle settings with my eye in the view finder (the live view was spoiling my night vision).

After much button pushing and dial turning I did manage to capture 'some sky'. I have darkened and cropped this pic to show the real (undoctored) colours my lens picked up.

I'm currently learning about how the stars are different colours. I didn't realise that before this last couple of weeks. And now I have my very own picture to prove it. Another few years I might be able to tell you what these are, but til then, I seem to have found some magic in the skies I never knew existed before.

A real lightbulb moment! (Oh, I spotted 4 in the end :)