At the end of August, we made a mad, last-minute dash down to Rye Harbour nature reserve. It has been a bad year for astrophotography, with every window of opportunity spoiled by cloudy skies. With just a few days of the Milky Way season left, I was desperate to make the most of one clear night. The main drawback was that I had been badly hurt by one of the goats a few days earlier and was using a crutch to walk. Rye is also a very large reserve and my original plan had been to capture the Milky Way on the beach, which was a very long walk. In the end, we decided to risk it and set out after an early dinner.
We left a little bit earlier than was necessary, as I wondered if it might be possible to get the new Discovery Centre on the way out to the beach. As it turned out, the Milky Way was too far to the right by the time it was dark enough and so I took the image featured above with just the stars as a backdrop. On earlier visits, the light streaming from the top of the building had caught my eye and I’m glad it came out so well.
Next year I will try again when the Milky Way is sitting more to the south. Weather permitting.
Ian Miller
8 Sep 2022Excellent work.
Zooey
8 Sep 2022Thank you, Ian. That means a lot coming from you 🙂
Steve Cullum
9 Sep 2022Lovely shot and worth the effort.
Zooey
9 Sep 2022Cheers Steve! We really love the nature reserve at night and often bump into locals enjoying it too 🙂
Sid
29 Sep 2022Magnificent shot! It seems you captures a sort of alien house in a misterious galaxy somewhere out there!
Love it so much <3
Ciao
Sid
Zooey
1 Oct 2022Actually… alien house describes the building perfectly. It just looks odd in the daytime, but it changes dramatically at night 🙂