Stargazing

I've always had a great interest in astronomy, but over the past few months I've been taking even more of an interest in it. 

It started when I happened to see a tweet about the fact the International Space Station was going to pass over in about an hour's time, and, amazingly, the sky was clear, so I set an alarm for a few minutes before it was due. When the time came I turned off all the lights and pulled back the blinds in my bedroom, sat down on the bed so that the street light was not in view, and waited. And I saw it!

My mum's even more into astronomy than I am (here's a constellation card I made for her birthday this year), so the following evening she and my dad were outside watching the space station after I directed her to the website with the times. After watching it a few other evenings, I decided the time was right to try for a photo. Unfortunately on my first attempt I didn't have a wide enough lens, and it didn't get in the photo. But the following time I did get some photos, which are what you see here! The ISS appears as a long streak across the sky in these long exposure photos.

Then it was time for the Perseid meteor shower. I'd seen my first meteor a year or two ago, so I was keen to try to see some more. Again, I was hugely lucky with the weather. Even though it was a work night, I stayed up til midnight, then got myself wrapped up in a warm coat and took a blanket and a huge cushion out to the garden. I lay on my back and watched the sky, and saw 5 meteors!