AstroScapes Aurora, Zodiacal Light, Star trails etc.

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The Zodiacal Light in spring. Bradworthy. 5th April 2007.
Canon 10D. 82 sec exposure at 400 ISO. Simple camera tripod.
The zodiacal light can be seen from our location quite regularly during the spring and autumn. This image has been adjusted to show the phenomenon as the unaided eye sees it.
*The zodiacal light is produced by sunlight reflecting off dust particles which are present in the solar system and known as cosmic dust. The material producing the zodiacal light is located in a lens-shaped volume of space centered on the sun and extending well out beyond the orbit of Earth. In mid-northern latitudes, the zodiacal light is best observed in the western sky in the spring after the evening twilight has completely disappeared, or in the eastern sky in the autumn just before the morning twilight appears. It is so faint that it is completely masked by either moonlight or light pollution. *Wikipedia.

Observing Spring Galaxies & the ISS. Bradworthy. April 2007.
Canon 350D.
The International Space Station rises from the west as a setting Venus shines like the Moon over the observers shoulder.This striking time exposure was taken as Phil Moore used our half metre Dobsonian to observe the spring sky with its' many galaxies.

Star Trails over Mount Teide. Tenneriffe. Oct 2001 50mm lens on a Cosina 35mm SLR A Classic star trail picture. Taken just below the volcanic peak of Teide under wonderful dark skys. The weather was very cold and windy. The fantastic orographic cloud over the volcanoes peak only became evident when the slide was developed!
Partial Solar Eclipse from Flamborough Head West Yorkshire. UK. May31st 2003 500mm Mirror Lens on a Olympus OM10 autoexposure. The eclipse started at dawn. Because of a sea mist the early stages were missed, however photography was made much easier.Several flocks of birds passed by before this frame was captured.
The Milky Way from La Palma. August 2003 Nikon 4500 Digital camera. This 3 minute, wide angle exposure of the Sagittarius region shows that many simple digital cameras are capable of simple astrophotography. This was the 1st exposure in a sequence of 5. It was the only useable frame, later frames became very 'noisy', as something in the camera, maybe the ccd, began to warm up.
Aurora. Pembrokshire, Wales. UK August 1993 Standard lens on a Cosina 35mm SLR This was an unexpected bonus observed whilst spending a pleasant summers evening tracking down planetary nebula and other 'faint fuzzies' that deep sky observers love so much. At first we thought it was just light pollution, but the display slowly evolved into columns of light marching along the horizon and wonderful reds and yellows, all clearly seen in this picture.

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