Last Monday it looked like being the clearest night sky for the next few weeks. So I thought we could take some photos of the stars, inspired by trying to look out for the space station the previous night. But we needed as little light pollution as possible. So I and my two children drove out of the city into the Peak District. We parked on the road by the rocky outcrop called the Roaches. Cameras out, tripods ready, phones as mini flashlights. It had turned chilly and there were occasional passing cars but the silence was amazing. The moon was out so that affected how dark the sky was, but we still managed to get a few great pictures. I used a Sony RX100 mk ii, a little compact camera with a big 1 inch sensor and a fast f1.8 28mm lens. Recommended settings were 20 seconds at 1600 IS0. Here are two of my photos that I was happy with:

The lens wasn’t wide enough to really get the rocks and as much sky as I would like, but the silhouette and either moving meteor or satellite looked quite good.

It was only as I edited the images back home that I realised how many stars the sensor in the camera had captured. In the second picture, the further you look, the more you see.

I had hoped to get a really dark sky to see something of the Milky Way. But I was content with this as a start, and both Joshua and Sarah came home equally happy with our late night foray 🙂

star gazing