I was out having a look at the moon and stars this evening, trying to get a few images with my DSLR. I could hear a rustling in the bushes behind me but I was taking long exposures of M81 at the time and in any case, I'm used to the cat turning up unannounced.

But the rustling got louder and closer and it definitely wasn't the cat. The head torch went on and I fully expected to be face to face with a rat.

Instead, I got a friendly look from a hedgehog. It wasn't a bit concerned about me or the light. It didn't curl up in to a ball. It just sat there and watched me watching it. I grabbed the camera off the telescope and shot 300 subs @ 90 seconds each... er... no, wait. I took a few snaps with the onboard flash and then went indoors to google what I could give it to eat. I ended up handing over some dog food. The rustling stopped and I went back to observing the night sky.

After some lovely views of M81, a couple of double stars and Saturn (with four moons), I checked once more on my hedgehog chum. It was happily feasting on the food.