Milky Way Season 2024

At last! It’s here! The season has started here in the UK. The Milky Way core is visible again. I was super stoked to get out with a friend in the early hours of Saturday morning. There was a very very small window to see the core (talking minutes here!), and the weather apps were all over the place with cloud cover. We decided to risk it anyway- with around 20% cloud being predicted.

I picked my friend up, and we headed to the Llyn Peninsula fairly early. Two stops en route to check the apps in case they had changed again, but we got to the coast and the skies were beautiful and clear! we carted our stuff down to the beach, and started setting up. It was great to dust the cobwebs off, as it has been a minute since I set my tracker up and polar aligned. But it went ok- I NEARLY forgot to balance my camera, but I remembered! I helped my friend focus her camera, and we made a coffee and sat and watched the stars!

Typically as the Milky Way rose, low cloud rolled in on the horizon right in the way. As the sky started to lighten, the cloud moved out the way and I was able to get one tracked shot off. I hadn’t realised the sea was going to come in so far, and in my haste to get a foreground shot I turned the tracker off but didn’t focus the foreground properly. There was no time to take it again- not unless I wanted to risk getting wet feet! So the shot wasn’t perfect, but the night was amazing. It’s always time well spent under the stars! We also checked a beautiful place out on the way home- can’t wait to share those edits with you. I also got a few deliveries for astro on Saturday- looking forward to using these this year!