Astronomy is an interest which has been with me since my early childhood and although sodium lights pollute the night skies in Ross-on-Wye itself these days, no more than a mile or so out of town one can find some excellent dark places to photograph or view the stars, either with the naked eye or with telescope or binoculars.

The photographs below were taken at 21:58 and 22:00 hours on Saturday 1 February 2003 from the middle of the footbridge across the River Wye at Foy, Herefordshire, without the aid of a telescope. They were taken with an Olympus E-10 camera set at f.2 and with 30 second and 17 second exposures respectively. The top image shows the constellation of Orion the hunter with the Nebular M42 visible in his sword. Some pollution from distant sodium lights at the Somerfield Depot can be seen even here, towards the bottom of the image. The second image shows the planet Saturn with its rings clearly visible. The third image is of myself and was taken by Tina with a Nikon 4300 during our Saturday evening of astro photography. Having adjusted to the darkness with pupils wide open, the flash blinded me for several minutes after the snapshot, which is not a good thing if out stargazing.