Stargazing on the Llyn Peninsula
Last weekend was a good weekend to view the Milky Way core according to PhotoPills (if you don't have this app, I would highly reccomend it), and all I needed was clear skies! The core was visible around 4/5am(ish) depending on where I decided to shoot, and on the early hours Saturday morning I found myself at Penmon Point Lighthouse hoping to create some magic after my last shoot there was awesome (but the core wasn’t visible in January), but was blighted by clouds. Back to the drawing board!
I had been looking at the Llyn Peninsula in Wales- on the light pollution maps it looked promising with plenty of dark sky areas. I had also read that Bardsey Island (off the most south western tip) had recently been certified as a Dark Sky Sanctuary by the International Dark Sky Association- if the island was a dark sky sanctuary, I figured the skies around it would be pretty dark! After some reading it turns out you can actually book and stay on the island itself-something worth considering!
I consulted by various weather apps and they all said to would be clear skies during the night, so I decided to head as close to the island on the peninsula I could get, arriving early and hoping for a sunset.
Luck would have it there wasn’t much of a sunset due to the 100% cloud cover. Instead of the sun setting it gradually got darker and darker, but I still managed to get some shots of Bardsey Island. I had a bit of a wait, so headed back to my car to nap away until it got dark, praying that the weather apps were going to be accurate and the cloud would clear. When I awoke and looked out my car window and could see how dark and clear the skies were. Excitedly I headed out, with my bag and camping chair, wrapping up warm against the cold air.
I set my camera up to take some internal shots for stacking, sat down and gazed at the sky. As my eyes became adjusted to the dark, I couldn’t believe how many stars there were. Clear Outside said this location was a bottle 2 for light pollution (a scale to measure light pollution- 1 being the darkest and 9 the brightest) and it really showed. It was incredibly beautiful and breath taking, and I sat there keeping an eye out and saw several shooting stars away from the camera. When astronomical dark ended, I sighed and packed up. I made myself a coffee for the long drive home, contemplating the vastness of the universe and the wonder of the night sky.
Later in the season the Milky Way should line up behind Bardsey island- a shot I think would be wonderful to take, and an excellent excuse to go back. When processing the images I noticed towards the end of the shoot there was a really thick white line moving across four frames. It was much thicker and brighter than other satellites I had picked up. Clear Outside had said the ISS would be passing over at 5am, and this was taken between 5 and 5.20-could it be I had caught the ISS? I posted on a group I am on and several confirmed it was likely the ISS which was pretty cool! And if it wasn’t? I still think it’s cool I picked up what appears to be a huge satellite!