RAF Spadeadam & The Galactic Core

Welcome back once again to the final part of my RAF Spadeadam adventure. It was another journey west to the county of Cumbria to take in some more night time photography - this time I had Milky Way in mind, as a backdrop to the Lockheed Shooting Star airframe, on barren wasteland. By this point I had already done the customary recce visit, followed by my first night trip to attempt a star trail or two, so all that was left to tick off was the Milky Way, with its galactic core on show at this time of year. Another Friday night and another trek across the boggy field to the spot that I would spend an hour or so of my time before heading home. Naturally the conditions were favourable and clear skies were overhead once again. The elements were on my side, so it was up to me to finish the job off and get out of there.

On arrival we found 3 parked cars near the access field. I noticed one of them immediately - it belonged to Mike Ridley, fellow Nissan worker and astro photographer, amongst others. It looked like he had arrived before us, unknowingly of course. Once again I was with my brother Chris. I certainly wasn't gonna take this trip on my own. We headed across the field towards the aeroplane and we could clearly see torches wafting about in the distance. A few minutes later we reached the plane and I called out 'Mr Ridley' who replied (in a slightly worried tone) ... 'Who's that'. We were soon shaking hands before chatting and he introduced me to his two mates, Tom Hill and Dave Thompson. Mike said he saw us approaching and thought it was the police, ha!

The Milky Way was prominent, rising behind the aeroplane in an ideal position. Within a few minutes its position had changed quite a lot, so I quickly got to work and started photographing it before it was out of shot altogether. My choice of weapon was the Sony a7s, coupled with a Canon 16-35L f2.8 lens, which was more than capable. At around 1am the International Space Station flew over, but I wasn't shooting continuously so I failed to pull in my first ever shot of it. I managed to grab a 5 second exposure before it vanished. Another job done and ticked off nicely. I was only after one good shot and I got it. Amazing foreground and another enjoyable night out under the stars.

Cheers, Ash

RAF Spadeadam - Revisited

Welcome back!

Following on from my last blog entry, this is the second part of the RAF Spadeadam trilogy - a night time visit under the stars. I'd been excited about a revisit since our first outing a couple of weeks previously. The thought of getting back into Cumbria to attempt a trail shot kept me ticking over nicely, whilst anticipating the drive west, over the A69 for more astro photography. As you can see by the BBC Weather screenshot from that day, clear skies was the forecast and a three quarter moon phase would help to light up the foreground. A second screenshot, also shown here, gives an indication of where the moon would be around 11pm, the time we planned to arrive on site . The position of the moon was perfect - ideally placed in the south west and directly behind where we planned to shoot from. The elements were on our side tonight. We arrived on time, as expected, then began to shoot our star trails. My brother Chris was alongside once again - there was on way I was heading here on my own. The site was open once again as we headed through the wooded area and parked next to the cattle grid - a ten minute walk to the abandoned Lockheed Shooting Star.

I was running with two camera's - a Canon 5D3 and the amazing Sony a7s mirrorless cam. I wanted to pull in two star trails, one portrait and one landscape, hence the use of two camera's. Lens choices on the night were Canon 16-35 f2.8 and a Samyang 14mm prime, also at f2.8. From memory, we were on site around 90 minutes, during which time it became increasingly colder, even though we could hardly feel it when we arrived. I reckon the task of negotiating the boggy access field warmed us up a tad. I'd opted for walking boots on this occasion, but the field wasn't anywhere near as dry as our first visit, so my got rather soaked and it was no fun standing in wet boots for an hour and a half.

Once we stopped the star trail sequence we ran off a few selfies before heading back home. It was a productive night and an enjoyable one too, despite the brass monkey bollocks I acquired on the night. All part of the fun I suppose, with hindsight. It didn't feel like fun at the time, he he. As well as capturing a star trail or two, I also put together a motion star trail from one of the sets of images I pulled in. The result can be seen on my 'Night Sky Time Lapse Compilation' which I uploaded to my You Tube channel. Click here to view it.

With the job done I was already planning to make a third visit to photograph the airframe under the milky way. This came to fruition a week later. Stay tuned for that - coming next. And on that note I shall vanish once again. Back soon folks. Cheers, Ash