It isn’t often I shoot the Milky Way in the Lake District, as I find even though the skies are dark the light pollution is terrible. One evening in August it looked to be clearer in the Lakes than North Wales, and I had scoped out another lake with a great jetty that would line up perfectly. A friend and I headed out, parked up and walked over to the spot. To find the jetty had a gate and was locked, with no way of getting around it. 

Quick dash back to the car and off we went to Derwent Water, with a slightly longer walk in than anticipated! What hadn’t been very clear on Google Maps was the amount of trees on the shore- this meant I was unable to polar align my tracker as I couldn’t see Polaris (the North Star). It was also VERY windy.

I set the tracker up by pointing it as north as I could, and adjusted the tracker to the correct latitude and managed a few shots before the clouds rolled in. This was a 60 second tracked exposure, and I didn't dare push it any longe with the wind and the fact I was unable to polar align. At the time I felt disappointed, but was pleasantly surprised with this image. Just goes to show you it pays off to try!

Nightscapes