Astro Grand Tour: South Dartmoor - 5 Locations, one night...

[John Baker]

The plan was to try to get around 5 new potential astrophotography locations near Ashburton, South Dartmoor in one night, but like all good plans the weather decided to not quite play ball…

1. Started out at the Venford Reservoir - a dam I have been over several times, but never stopped for an astro shoot over the auxiliary overflow.

Then managed to get a quickie of the ISS passing over...

2. Combestone Tor, the bright moon was acting like a large flood light, thankfully it then dropped behind the cloud.

3. Hexworthy or Huccaby Bridge over the West Dart River - I was dodging the rain by this time...

4. The Ancient Clapper Bridge at Dartmeet, not sure how this location would work and I needed to wait 15 mins for the rain to pass before I could try the shoot...

5. the final stop, the Diamond Jubilee stone on Leusdon Common, near Poundsgate. Unfortunately the cloud had covered the sky and blocked any views of the Milky Way and after taking the shots the rain arrived.

It was ambitious to try to cover 5 locations plus a pass of the ISS in one photo session. While thelped throw light onto the various scenes. the moon was low in the sky so thankfully it did not impact on the view of the Milky Way - it turned out to be a grand tour and some of the locations will be great to revisit with different conditions...

[StargeezerTim]

I especially love the second Combstone Tor image. The moving clouds and static MW make for an impressive and moody composition.