Natural flare ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other day I did something I haven't done in a long time .. I bought a new lens. (Ok, it was second-hand, but my 300mm telephoto has needed replacing for ages.) And then, last night, I did something I have never done before. I photographed a solar flare! Back at the computer after pointing my 'new' lens at the sunset, my curiosity was aroused by an odd 'sticky-out bit' at the edge of the sun. For confirmation I sent the shot to a pal of mine, an astro-photographer who works with Herstmonceux Observatory in East Sussex. He muttered something scientific about Hydrogen Alpha and then said "Brilliant!" and sent me a big smiley face emoji. There's always talk of 'luck' in photography, and I certainly got my fair share last night. You could say I have a 'flare' for it!  

Wow!..

Following on from my night of star-shooting, I sent some of the pictures to an old pal in the UK. John Fox is a former photographer at the Manchester Evening News and now gives talks on Astro-Photography. He very kindly emailed me back with the word "Wow!" and then proceeded to identify and caption everything in what, to me, was just a pretty picture of the night sky. I was amazed, I am in awe and, on the day that a Black Hole was photographed for the first ever time, I am absolutely gob-smacked by what my camera has captured. And the distances and sizes of everything out there! These star-clouds and nebulae are 5, 6 and 7,000 light years away, yet still within our own Milky Way Galaxy. Imagine that. So far away and yet light travelling for up to 7,000 years landed on my camera sensor for a mere five seconds and recorded an image like this!

John, I think "Wow!" sums it up nicely ..