Sky at Night

May 31 2011. 0405hrs. Space Shuttle Endeavour makes a dawn double flyby pass (ISS) over UK skies prior to landing tomorrow. The only time Endeavour was visible in UK skies, so a rare capture no doubt. Made extremely difficult to capture on camera with a wide angle lens due to ambient sunrise light. The shuttle was visible to the human eye all the way to approx centre of this image but camera could not pick up due to light. Captured with Olympus E5 & 12-60mm SWD.

April 24_25 2011. Volcanic ash star trail :-) Iceland's Grimsvotn ash arrived in UK skies overnight. Did it affect the sky visually? Quite possibly, although density levels were low. Possibly more reddish/blueish than normal? Nicely captured the opposing curvature either side of the celestial equator. Oly E5, 7-14mm. 15s exposures @ F4 ISO 500 shot continuous through night (1000 exposures). Paint lit the foreground and even the growler got in the shot :-)