Most people know that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, but they may not realise that this is quite a generalisation. In fact, the Sun only rises due east and only sets due west on two days of the year; the days of the Spring Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox which, for 2021, are March 20 and September 22. To illustrate this, Figures 1 and 2 show the location of the rising and setting sun at the Spring Equinox and Autumnal Equinox, respectively.

​Once it has risen due east and set due west at the Autumnal Equinox (Figure 2), the Sun rises and sets a tiny bit further south each day until the Winter Solstice, the day on which it rises as far to the southeast as it ever does and sets as far to the southwest as it ever does (See Figure 4). It then changes direction and begins moving north each day, eventually rising due east and setting due west on the Spring Equinox (Figure 1) before continuing northwards until the Summer Solstice, when it rises as far to the northeast as it ever does and sets as far to the northwest as it ever does (Figure 3).

​Once it has risen due east and set due west at the Autumnal Equinox (Figure 2), the Sun rises and sets a tiny bit further south each day until the Winter Solstice, the day on which it rises as far to the southeast as it ever does and sets as far to the southwest as it ever does (See Figure 4). It then changes direction and begins moving north each day, eventually rising due east and setting due west on the Spring Equinox (Figure 1) before continuing northwards until the Summer Solstice, when it rises as far to the northeast as it ever does and sets as far to the northwest as it ever does (Figure 3).

​Image 1, at the top of this blog, was taken at Resipole during sunset on the day after the Autumnal Equinox of 2019, with the camera facing southwest down Loch Sunart towards the Isle of Carna and the hills of Morvern.  If you look closely, you can see a patch of intense colour behind the wooded hillside on the right-hand side of the image. This was the spot where the sun was setting due west and for me, such a sight is one of the most welcome of the year because it marks the return of spectacular sunsets to this part of the Loch.

​With the passing of the autumn months and the movement of the setting sun towards the south, these sunsets become more and more intense. They are something that I’ll never tire of photographing even though I have taken countless photos of them from this spot. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen the same mix of colours twice. Each sunset is different because of the varying position of the sun and the infinite range of possible cloud formations that reflect the light from the sun and produce the kaleidoscope of colours.
 
The Autumnal Equinox also paves the way for increased chances to see aurora borealis displays. According to NASA, the equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights, because the geomagnetic activity that causes them is more likely to take place in the spring and autumn than in the summer or winter. In addition, we tend to have more clear nights in spring and autumn so this, combined with more geomagnetic activity, may be the reason why I tend to have captured most of my Northern Light images in September/October and March/April. 

Image 2 above was taken 4 days after the Autumnal Equinox of 2019, when I had a client out with me for some night photography tuition. We had spent the first part of the night preparing for and taking photographs of the Milky Way rising above Loch Sunart and while we were doing this a very high Aurora Alert came through on my phone. We quickly packed up our camera gear and headed up to Acharacle and set it up again on the jetty there is on Loch Shiel. It is a perfect spot to look for and photograph the Aurora Borealis because it faces directly towards northern horizon that has only a few distant and low-lying hills on it, meaning that the view north is clear of any obstructions. We had a very productive time there and also at another couple of locations nearby and came away with some great shots of the “Merry Dancers”.
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Finally, although the equinox referred to as a day by many people, it is actually the exact moment in time when the tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun. For 2021, the Autumnal Equinox will be at 8:21 pm on Wednesday 22 September and the Spring Equinox was at 9:37 am on Saturday 20 March.

​This month the sun sets around 8:00 pm and the stars and the constellations become visible from about 9:00 pm onwards. As with July and August, the best way to navigate your way around the night sky is to use the Summer Triangle, which is made up of the three bright stars of Vega, Altair and Deneb. Start off by finding Vega, a really bright white star, which will be directly overhead. Next is Altair, which you will find halfway between Vega and the southern horizon. Finally, there is Deneb, which will be almost directly above Altair and across from Vega.
 
Once you have found the Summer Triangle, you can start to look for some of the constellations in the southern sky. Start off with Vega, the constellation of Lyra’s (the Lyre) brightest star. Below it, you will see the constellation’s 4 other main stars. These form a small parallelogram and make up the body of the Lyre – the sky’s only musical instrument.  

​The two better-known constellations of Capricornus and Aquarius are below Delphinus in the lower part of the sky. They are well known because they are in the Zodiac, the path of the planets but, as they have no very bright stars, you might not be able to pick them out.  Capricornus is the Water-Goat and Aquarius is a human, the Water-Carrier.

​As with August, September is a good month to view the Milky Way. If you trace a line down from Deneb and through Altair, you should be able to make out the Milky Way’s cloudy core to the right of Jupiter and Saturn, which you’ll find shining bright just above the southern horizon. The cloudy core will be visible up until about 10:00 pm. When you look at the Milky Way, you’ll notice a black band running down it’s middle, between the stars. William Herschel, the first astronomer to map our Galaxy, thought that this was a hole in space, but it is actually a dark swathe of sooty dust, known as the Great Rift in Cygnus which runs along the disc of our Galaxy.
 
If you look north, you’ll see the same stars as you would in any other month, but their orientation varies from month to month. By September the familiar Plough asterism, which many people recognise, is down over to the north-west. Follow its two right-hand stars upward, veer a little bit to the right and you’ll find Polaris, the Pole Star. If you look over to the north-east you can see Capella. Contrast its colour with that of Vega which is virtually overhead at this time of year. Capella is a yellow giant star, while Vega is a slightly bluer star than the Sun. The contrast is obvious if you look from one to the other.

​At the very start of the month, we just miss the last quarter Moon as it was on 30 August, while there is a new Moon (no Moon) on 7 September. So, if it’s clear on the evening of 9 September, you will find the slightest of crescent Moons setting in the west at around 8:00 pm with a bright Venus to its left. However, it may be difficult to see the moon on 9 September as it will be lying close to where the sun has set. You'll probably find it easier to see it on the following evening, 10 September, as it will have moved slightly to the left and will be sitting further from the sun and to the left of Venus. 

​This month's full moon is on the night of 20-21 September, becoming 100% full at just before 1 am on the morning of 21 September. It will rise over in the east at around 8:00 pm, with Jupiter well over to its right. On the night of 25-26 September, you will find the moon passing beneath and close to the Pleiades (The Seven Sisters), one the closest open star clusters to Earth.  September’s full moon is called the Corn Moon because this is when crops are gathered at the end of the summer season. At this time of year, the Moon appears particularly bright and rises early, thus letting farmers continue harvesting into the night. This moon is also sometimes named the barley moon, and it is often the nearest full moon to the autumnal equinox, earning it the title of 'harvest moon'.

When it is getting dark, you may be able to spot Venus hanging low down on the western horizon just before it sets at around 8:30 pm.  You may also catch Mercury, the smallest and innermost planet in our Solar System because it reaches maximum separation from the Sun on 14 September.
 
However, if you are looking for planets, you will have more success when looking to the south-east at dusk because two of our Solar System’s gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn will rise from there at about 7:30 pm.  Jupiter is the brighter of the two planets and will be sitting to the left of Saturn. Jupiter sets at around 4:00 am, while Saturn sinks below the horizon at about 2:30 am.
 
If look at Jupiter through binoculars, you’ll see its four largest moons. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and are known as the Galilean moons. With a telescope, you’ll also be able to see the dark belts of Jupiter crossing its disc, and maybe, if you are lucky, the storm known as the Great Red Spot. If your binoculars or telescope magnify by about 40 or 50 times, you be able to see Saturn’s famous rings and its biggest moons when you look at it. The largest, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.
 
Neptune will be above the horizon all night long and you will find it to the left of Jupiter in Aquarius. It will be at its closest to Earth on 14 September, but it is our Solar System’s most distant planet, so "close" actually means 2,688 million miles away. Also, it is not particularly bright, so you will need binoculars or a telescope to see it. Its near twin in size, Uranus, can be found further over to the east in Aries and will be just visible to the naked eye, although you’ll have a better chance of seeing it if you use binoculars or a telescope.
 
Mars is too close to the Sun to be visible this month.

The annual Perseid Meteor Shower put on a good show last month and those of you who were lucky enough to have clear skies around its peak on the night of 12-13 August will have seen them shooting across the sky. However, September is not a good month for meteor showers, so we will have to wait until October for the chance to see some more. The Draconis will peak on the night of 8-9 October and the Orionids on the night of 20-21 October.

The Autumnal Equinox is when night and day are nearly exactly the same length (12 hours). It also marks the start of astronomical autumn and when the nights start to become longer than the days. Although the autumnal equinox referred to as a day by many people, it is actually the exact moment in time when the tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun. For 2021, this will be at 8:21 pm on Wednesday 22 September.
 
The Autumnal Equinox also paves the way for increased chances to see aurora borealis displays. According to NASA, the equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights, because the geomagnetic activity that causes them is more likely to take place in the spring and autumn than in the summer or winter. In addition, we tend to have more clear nights in spring and autumn so this, combined with more geomagnetic activity, may be the reason why I tend to have captured most of my Northern Light images in September/October and March/April. Finally, if you do want to catch a glimpse of the “Merry Dancers”, be sure to keep an eye out for “aurora alerts” on the web and on social media. Good sources for forecast and alerts are AuroraWatch UK, Glendale Skye Auroras and Aurora Research Scotland.

r a few years, an old sailing boat had sat perched high up on a huge, rounded rock on the southern edge of the bay, in a position such that it combined with the edges of the bay and the distant silhouette of the Small Isles to create the perfect composition. I visited the bay on a perfectly still August evening in 2019 when a high spring tide coincided with sunset. Even with almost 5 metres of tide, this old sailboat was high enough up on the rocks to remain steadfast in its position. After taking in the scene for a while, I set up my camera on its tripod, set the exposure time to 90 seconds, pressed the shutter button to capture and freeze 1½ minutes of the most magical west coast sunset to create the image at the top of this blog titled “On the Rocks I”.

With sunset now at around 9:00 pm, the stars and the constellations will become visible from about 10:00 pm onwards. As with July, the best way to navigate your way around the night sky is to still use the Summer Triangle. The Triangle is made up of the three bright stars of Vega, Altair and Deneb. Start off by finding Vega, a really bright white star which will be directly overhead. Next is Altair, which you will find halfway between Vega and the southern horizon. Finally, there is Deneb, which will be almost directly above Altair and across from Vega.

Once you have found the Summer Triangle, you can now start to look for some constellations. There’s Cygnus the Swan, which is also known as the Northern Cross. It is a large cross-shape with Deneb at the top, marking the tail of a swan which flies down the Milky Way with outstretched wings towards Sagittarius (the Archer) which is low down on the southern horizon. It’s not a particularly bright constellation, so you’ll need a good clear night and to be far away from any light pollution to see it. As you trace a line between these two constellations, you should be able to make out the Milky Way’s cloudy core, which will be visible up until about three hours after sunset. 

​Although most of what to see is in the southern night sky, there are a few notable things to see if you look north. In the north-west, you will find the familiar shape of The Plough and you can use its two right hand stars to point towards Polaris (the Pole Star or North Star), which is always in the same position in the sky.

To the right of Polaris, you’ll see the W-shape of Cassiopeia, the constellation that represents the fabled vain queen of the same name. At this time of year her husband, king Cepheus, is high in the sky, though his stars are nothing like as bright as those of his beautiful wife. Below Cassiopeia are the stars of Perseus, after which the Perseid meteors are named. These meteors will peak on the night of 12-13 August, and you can find out more about them below. Finally, low down and below Perseus is Capella, the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer) and the sixth-brightest star in the night sky. ​

However, it will be difficult to see the moon on 9 August as it will be lying close to where the sun has set, so you'll probably find it easier to see it on the following evening, 10 August, as it will have moved slightly to the left and will be sitting further from the sun and closer to Venus. Try again on 11 August and you may see the moon lying to the left of Venus.

The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 15 August while the full moon is on the night of 21-22 August, when it will rise in the south-east at around 9:30pm, with Saturn above and to the right of it and Jupiter above and to the left of it. August’s full moon was called the Sturgeon Moon by North American fishing tribes because this species of fish appeared in large numbers during this month. It's also been called the green corn moon, the grain moon, and the red moon for the reddish hue it often takes on in the summer haze.

​When it is getting dark, the first thing you spot will be Venus. It will be low down on the western horizon in the dusk twilight, just before it sets at around 9:30 pm. Mars will be close to it, but this planet will be difficult to see because it is almost 200 times fainter than the “Evening Star”.  
 
If looking for planets, you will have more success when looking to the south-east at dusk because two of our Solar System’s gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn will rise from there at about 9:00 pm and will be at their closest approach to Earth this year and this month. First there is Saturn, reaching ‘just’ 831 million miles away on 2 August, while Jupiter passes its closest to us on 20 August, at 373 million miles away.
 
Jupiter is the brighter of the two planets. It will be sitting to the left of Saturn and if you look at it through binoculars, you’ll see its four largest moons. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and are known as the Galilean moons. With a telescope, you’ll also be able to see the dark belts of Jupiter crossing its disc, and maybe, if you are lucky, the storm known as the Great Red Spot.
 
If your binoculars or telescope magnify by about 40 or 50 times, you be able to see Saturn’s famous rings and its biggest moons when you look at it. The largest, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.

​After a few months’ absence, you’ll be able to see some shooting starts because the number of meteor showers is now on the increase. In fact, this August will be a great month for watching shooting stars because the annual Perseid Meteor Shower will peak on a night when the Moon is only a crescent and sets soon after the Sun. This is the night of 12-13 August and with no moon to drown out the shooting stars, you are likely to see them from the hour or so after sunset.
 
They are called Perseids because the radiant (the area of the sky where the meteors seem to originate) is located near the constellation of Perseus and although you’ll be able to see them throughout the night, you will see more if you wait until this radiant is high in the night sky. This will be from about midnight and if you watch until dawn, the shooting stars will be raining down from overhead.
 
When watching for shooting stars, give yourself at least an hour of observing time, because they will come in spurts, interspersed with lulls. Also remember that your eyes can take as long as 20 minutes to adapt to the darkness of night, so don’t rush the process. If you are patient, you may see up to 60 meteors per hour at the shower’s peak. 

​In the 8 or so weeks either side of the Summer Solstice, which this year was on 21 June, the days are long and the nights are short. In fact, the sun gets to no more than 10-15 degrees below the horizon and this makes it a lean period for both aurora chasers and stargazers because astronomical, or full darkness does not occur at any point during the night. The resulting all-night twilight means that it is simply too light to see the “Merry Dancers” and all but the brightest stars.
 
However, all is not lost because what you can see are noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds. They become visible in the north to north-west sky as darkness falls and just as the brightest stars become visible. They have the appearance of ghostly whispers of light shimmering in the all-night twilight and are usually set against a pearly-blue sky.

​These night-shining clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere. They form in the middle atmosphere, or mesosphere, roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) above Earth's surface. They are thought to be made of ice crystals that form on fine dust particles from meteors and volcanic activity. These ice coated dust particles then reflect the light that the sun projects high up into the sky, when it is between 6 to 16 degrees below the horizon, to create an illuminated cloudy veil in the northern sky at latitudes between ±50° and ±70°.

They are first known to have been observed in 1885, two years after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, but it remains unclear as to whether their appearance had anything to do with the volcanic eruption or whether their discovery was due to more people observing the spectacular sunsets caused by the volcanic debris in the atmosphere. 

​This does indeed give me cause for concern, but nevertheless, the sight of these shimmering and wispy clouds illuminating the upper reaches of our summer night sky is quite mesmerising. I was fortunate enough to both see and photograph them on a mid-July night at Castle Tioram when it barely got dark. They seemed to not only illuminate the sky but also the landscape around me. There is still time to see them so, if you are outside after midnight on a clear night, look north and you may be able to pick them out. 

​If you have a modern digital camera fitted with a wide-angle lens which you can mount on a tripod, you can try taking some photographs of them yourself. Put the camera on the manual setting, open up the aperture to at least f4, set your ISO 800 and take a few test shots at exposures of several seconds until you find the exposure time that works. You could even try photographing them with your smart phone if it has a “Night Mode” setting.

​It’s now after the Summer Solstice so it will begin to get dark at night again and with sunset at around 10:00 pm, you should see the constellations emerging from about 11:00 pm onwards. Also, at this time of year, we begin to see the Milky Way again and at the end of the month, this home to 200 billion stars will be visible from around 11:00 pm because it’s cloudy core will be above the southern horizon then.

​Above Ophiuchus look for a quadrilateral of stars known as the Keystone, from its shape. This is the most recognisable part of the Constellation of Hercules, named after the Roman mythological figure who was known for his strength and numerous far-ranging adventures. The constellation is best known for its great globular cluster of stars, M13, and has a a lesser globular cluster, M92, nearby.

At one time, the globular cluster M13 was known as ‘The Great Hercules Cluster’. It is the brightest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere and is visible to both the naked eye and binoculars. It contains more than 300,000 stars and is 25,200 light-years from Earth and to find it, look about two thirds of the way up the right-hand side of the Keystone. It will look like a circular misty patch through a small telescope, but larger telescopes will start to show the individual stars.

To the east of Scorpius, and just above the horizon, you will find the constellation Sagittarius (the Archer). This is not a particularly bright constellation, so you’ll need a good, clear night and be far away from any light pollution to see it. If you do spot the stars of Sagittarius, you will see that they form a sort of teapot shape. The handle of the teapot represents the upper body of the Archer, while the curve of three stars to the right are his bent elbow. The spout of the teapot is the point of an arrow which is aimed at Scorpius, the fearsome celestial scorpion.
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Sagittarius is rich in star clusters and nebulae, some of which you can see with binoculars on a night when the southern horizon is really clear. Above the spout is the Lagoon Nebula, a giant interstellar cloud that’s visible to the naked eye. Near to it and visible with a telescope is the three-lobed Trifid Nebula, while above Sagittarius and in the Milky Way, you will find a bright patch of stars called the Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). Above this, is the Omega Nebula, which is considered to be one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy.

Going back up to Vega, you’ll see the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre), of which Vega is its brightest star. Below Vega, you will see the constellation’s 4 other main stars, which form a small parallelogram. To its upper left is an interesting double star, Epsilon Lyrae. Some people can see this as a double star with the naked eye, but binoculars show it well. And a telescope larger than about 75 mm aperture reveals that each of the two stars are themselves double stars. For this reason, some people refer to Epsilon Lyrae as the “Double Double”.

​The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 17 July and you will see a half-Moon sitting near Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. A week later, on 24 July, the full Moon will rise in the south-east at around 11:00 pm with Saturn sitting above it. This full Moon was called by some, the Buck Moon to signify the new antlers that emerge on deer buck's foreheads around this time. It is also known as the Thunder Moon, Wort Moon, and Hay Moon.

As it gets dark, the first thing you spot will be Venus, low on the western horizon in the dusk twilight, just before it sets at around 10:30 pm. Mars will be close to it but it will be difficult to see as it is almost 200 times fainter than the “Evening Star”.  From July 12, the two planets will begin to move apart, with Venus moving off to the left at a quicker pace than Mars.
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Over the course of the last month, Saturn has been rising earlier and earlier each night and now appears at around 11:00 pm with Jupiter following it about half an hour later, rising above the horizon at a point below and to the left of Saturn. Half an hour after that, a very faint Neptune follows Jupiter with a slightly brighter Uranus following about an hour and a half later.

​July sees the number of meteors increasing and it may be possible to spot some shooting stars from the Alpha Capricornids and the Delta Aquarids meteor showers. They will appear to come from the south-east, but they will be difficult to see as the Moon will be quite bright at the end of the month, which is around the time they are at their maximum of activity. In reality, we need to wait until the Perseid Meteor Shower in August for our next good show. It will peak on the night of 12-13 August and there will be little or no moon to mar the show because a thin crescent Moon will have set by early-to-mid evening. That guarantees a dark sky for this year’s Perseid meteors, so fingers crossed for a clear night.

​Above Scorpius, you will find Ophiuchus (the Serpent-Bearer). It is a large constellation, which straddles the celestial equator, and it is commonly depicted as a man grasping a snake. This snake is represented by the constellation of Serpens (the Serpent), which is immediately to the west of Ophiuchus. Above Serpens is the semi-circular constellation of Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown), which is made up of 4 bright stars that represent the crown of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos in Greek mythology, who helped the hero Theseus kill the Minotaur and find his way out of the labyrinth in which the creature lived.

​High up in the south-eastern sky, you will find Vega, the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre) and the fifth brightest star in our night sky. Vega acts as the guide star to the Keystone, a rectangle of four stars in the constellation Hercules, the fifth largest constellations in our night sky. To find the Keystone, trace a straight line from Vega and towards Arcturus. You will find it about one third of the way along this line. The Keystone represents the body of Hercules and is home to M13, the Great Global Cluster, a bee-like swarm of a third of a million red giant stars. It is one of the brightest globular clusters and although it is visible to the naked eye, it will be easier to see when using binoculars or a small telescope.

The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 18 June and the following night, you will see the half-Moon sitting above Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. Just under a week later, on 24 June, the full Moon will rise in the south-east just before 11:00 pm. In Colonial America, this full Moon was referred to as the Strawberry Moon because this was when these little red berries ripened. Europeans have dubbed it the rose moon, while other cultures named it the hot moon because it occurred at the beginning of the summer heat.
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Similar to last month, June’s full Moon will be a supermoon (full Moons are those within 228,420 miles of Earth) and the fourth of four supermoons that occur in 2021. This one will be the third biggest and brightest full Moon of the year at only 224,662 miles away from Earth and because it happens in June it is termed a Super Strawberry Moon.

A few days after this full Moon, early on 27 June, you will find the Moon setting low in the south, with Saturn above and to the left of it, while the following morning of 28 June it will be sitting in between Saturn and Jupiter. The Moon moves further to the left on 29 June, rising in the south-east at around 1:30 am with Jupiter sitting very close to it as it travels westward, low down on the southern horizon.

This is a great month for spotting Venus as it will be brighter than anything else in the night sky, apart from the Moon. You’ll find it low on the western horizon in the dusk twilight, just before it sets at around 11:00 pm. As the month passes, Venus gets higher in the sky, moving up and to its left to get closer and closer to Mars, which is almost 200 times fainter than this “Evening Star”.
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On 23 June, you find Mars low in the evening twilight, right in front of the Beehive (Praesepe) Star Cluster. It will be well worth looking at through binoculars or a small telescope as this is a wonderful swarm of a thousand stars. In fact, it is one of the nearest open cluster of stars to us, with a larger population of stars than most other nearby clusters.
 
Saturn rises in the south-east at about 1:00 am, while Jupiter follows about half an hour later, rising above the horizon at a point below and to the left of Saturn. Half an hour after that, a very faint Neptune follows Jupiter to appear above the horizon but is may not possible to see it as the dawn twilight approaches. 

​June is a quiet month meteor showers as most of them occur when it is daylight. In reality, we need to wait until the Perseid Meteor Shower in August for our next good show. Radiating from the constellation of Perseus, It will peak on the night of 11-12 August. This year, the Moon will only be 13% full on that night and is expected to set as the meteors begin to appear so, you will likely see around 50 to 75 meteors per hour if the sky is clear. Also look out for them on the nights before and after as they will probably put on a good show then too.

​This year, the Summer Solstice will occur on 21 June at 03:32 GMT (04:43 BST) and is the exact moment when the northern hemisphere is tilted most towards the Sun. However, many people refer to the Summer Solstice as the Longest Day of the year, when the number of hours of daylight are at their maximum and the number of hours of night are at their minimum. On 21 June this year, our sunrise will be 4:30:17 am and our sunset will be 10:19:33 pm, giving us 17 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds of daylight. On June 20, our hours of daylight will be 6 seconds less and on June 22 they will be 3 seconds less.

On 10 June an annular solar eclipse will appear over Canada, Greenland and Siberia, when the Moon will pass between Earth and the Sun, thereby partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. During an annular eclipse, the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, so it block’s most of the Sun's light and cause the Sun to look like an annulus or ring.

​Here on the Peninsulas, we can expect to see a partial eclipse and while it will not be as spectacular, it will still be a sight to witness and fortunately for us, the further north and west you are the more complete the eclipse will be. In the south-east of the UK, you can expect about 20% of the Sun to be covered by the moon’s shadow, but here in the north-west, we can expect the Sun to be covered by about 40%. Look out for the eclipse from about 10:00 am on June 10, when the Moon will first appear to take a bite out of the Sun, after which it will reach maximum eclipse and then move off the Sun at around 1:00 pm.

Scotland has 40 National Scenic Areas which cover 13% of its land mass and they earn this designation because their outstanding scenery makes them the country’s finest Landscapes. One of these areas is Morar, Moidart and Ardnamurchan here on Scotland’s north-west coast. It is home to a coastline of spectacular cliffs, dramatic rocky shores and beautiful white sand beaches. Added to all of this are breath-taking views of the Small Isles of Muck, Eigg, Rùm and Canna, which sit a few miles west out in the Sound of Arisaig and just south of the Isle of Skye.
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As you travel from Moidart in the east, to Ardnamurchan in the west, your perspective of the Small Isles changes significantly, with both them and features on them coming into view and disappearing again after only a few miles. This everchanging view makes photographing both them and this coastline an absolute joy and now that the evening sun is in the north-west, my plan for the coming weeks is to photograph to do just that. My aim is to capture this spectacular coastline while it is bathed in warm sunlight at the end of our long summer days. In the meantime, however, I thought I would describe this somewhat special journey and share some of the images that I already have. 

​On reaching Glenuig, you can turn off the main road, drive past the Glenuig Inn and continue westward for about a mile and a half to reach the road end. From there, a short walk takes you to Smirisary, an isolated and roadless crofting village that sits between a rocky foreshore and a steep hillside about two miles to the west of Glenuig. As you walk the final half mile to the village, your view of the sea is obstructed by a small hill, but as you get to the top of it, the view dramatically opens up to reveal islands that you feel you can almost touch (Image 3).

​I like to visit Smirisary in mid to late summer. It is a great place to capture Muck, Eigg and Rùm sitting in flat calm seas while they are silhouetted against the colourful skies that are a feature of the sunsets there at that time of year. From there, you get a closer view of the distinctive shape of An Sgurr and the dramatic peaks of the Rùm and its Cuillin mountain range, which sits behind Eigg and simply adds to the magic you are witnessing (Image 4). 

If you want to get a view of the Small Isles on this part of your journey, you need to head out to the small but beautiful sandy beach at Ardtoe where a short walk out to the headland on its western side brings the southern end of Eigg and An Sgurr back into view. From there, you also get a glimpse of Rùm because the high peaks of the Rùm Cuillin are just visible above the land that shelters the beach from the open sea (Image 1 and Image 7). 

​While at Ardtoe and if you don’t mind a walk over uneven and often boggy ground, you can make your way out to the end of Rubha Luinngeanach where you get a more open view of Eigg with Rùm behind it. It was at this spot where I witnessed what I think is the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen over the Small Isles (Image 8). I was out there on a rather cloudy July evening, so my hopes of getting a good image were not high. Suddenly the clouds beyond the skerry of Sgeir an Eidigh parted and allowed the most intense of crepuscular rays to shine down on the Isle of Eigg and silhouetted it against the golden backdrop that they had created. It is a moment that is forever etched on my memory.

​On leaving Ardtoe to head back towards Acharacle, you’ll find that a slight diversion down the road towards Arivegaig rewards you with a fine view out through the entrance of Kentra Bay to Eigg, where An Sgurr sits directly behind the gap between the land and the sea (Image 9). 

The road to Arivegaig is also a spot where you can catch a full moon setting behind the Rùm Cuillin on a clear winter morning (Image 10). ​

​The next part of the journey west takes you along the side of Loch Sunart and it is a good few miles before you see the Small Isles again because the road now takes you along the southern coast of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. It is not until you pass Camas nan Geall and follow the road north around the side of Ben Hiant to reach Doire Daraich before they come back into view again (Image 11). 

It is from the hills above Portuairk from where I think you get the most dramatic view of Rùm and the magnificent peaks of its Cuillin mountain range. It is simply majestic, sitting there beyond Sanna Bay and the significantly more diminutive Isle of Muck (Image 15). 

​While there, it is well worth taking the walk from Portuairk to the beautiful white sand beach at Sanna because, as you climb over the hill that separates the two, another magnificent view of the Small Isles reveals itself (Image 16). It is from there that you can see all the Small Isles because the fourth and, up until now, elusive Isle of Canna reveals itself. If you stop there for a little whole and look north over the beach you can just make it out, sitting well out the west of the Isle of Rùm, which has Eigg to its east and Muck to its south.

Our journey from east to west along this beautiful Moidart and Ardnamurchan coastline ends at Ardnamurchan Point. It is as far west as you can go on the British Mainland and is home to the iconic Ardnamurchan Lighthouse which so many visitors head for when they visit the West Highland Peninsulas.
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While you do get a clear view of the Small Isles from there, they do not readily sit in any photographic composition that features the lighthouse because the camera tends to point in a direction looking away from them or is at an angle where the islands are hidden by the lighthouse itself.

It takes a walk out on to the rocks of Dubh Rubha Mor at low tide before you can point the camera north, across the bay of Briaghlann, and capture both the lighthouse and the now familiar profile of Rùm and Muck behind it and it seems fitting that I end this journey with an image of the sun setting on this very scene (Image 17). 

Virgo is home to a large cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster. The Cluster contains over 2,000 individual galaxies, 11 of which are Messier objects that will be visible to anyone using a reasonable astronomy telescope. They are all galaxies and the most notable of these is M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. This edge-on spiral galaxy has a dark dust lane running across its centre, giving it the appearance of a sombrero hat. M49 is an elliptical galaxy and is the brightest galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. M58 is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy and one of the brighter galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. M61 is a face-on spiral galaxy and is one of the largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Other notable deep-sky objects in Virgo include the Eyes Galaxies and the Butterfly Galaxies. Both are made up of pairs of interacting galaxies that are colliding with each other.

As there is a new Moon (no Moon) on 11 May, you will find the slightest of crescent moons, with Mercury close to it and Venus below and to the right of it, setting in the north-west at around 10:00 pm a couple of days later on 13 May. During the following two days, the setting crescent moon will move to be above and to the left of Mercury and to be below and to the right of Mars.
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The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 19 May and a week later, on 26 May, we have this month’s full Moon. Many cultures refer to this full Moon as the Flower Moon because of the abundant blooming that occurs as spring gets going properly. Other names include the hare moon, the corn planting moon, and the milk moon.

Similar to last month, May’s full Moon will be a supermoon (full Moons are those within 228,420 miles of Earth) and the third of four supermoons that occur in 2021. This one will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year and, at only 221,117 miles away from Earth, it will be about 30% brighter than the faintest full Moon we see. 

This is a good month for spotting Mercury and Venus, the two closest planets to the Sun. Of the two, Venus will be easier to see as it will be shining bright in the north-western evening sky up until it sets in the hour following sunset. You will find Mercury above Venus for almost all of the month but, as each night passes, Mercury moves closer to Venus until, on 28 May, they are right next to each other. Also, on the night of 13 May, you will find Mercury sitting right next to the crescent moon.
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Saturn rises in the south-east at about 3:00 am, while Jupiter follows about half an hour later, rising above the horizon at a point below and to the left of Saturn.

Meanwhile, in the western evening sky you will still find Mars, low down on the horizon and just below Castor and Pollux, the twin stars in Gemini. It will be visible from just after sundown until shortly after midnight, when it will dip below the western horizon.

​The main meteor shower in May is the eta Aquarids, which is the result of small pieces of Halley’s Comet burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. This year it is forecast to peak between midnight and dawn on the morning of May 5, when around 10-20 meteors per hour may be spotted. On this morning, a 38% full waning crescent moon will rise at around 4:30 am, so the light from it won’t intrude to much on the spotting of any meteors. As this particular meteor shower has quite a broad maximum, you might want to also look for them on the mornings of 4 and 6 May as well.

This month, the sun sets around 8:30 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 10:00 pm onwards. So, once it is getting dark, look directly above your head and you’ll see the Plough, which is an asterism that is familiar to a lot of people. This makes it an excellent starting point from which to navigate your way around the southern night sky.

If it’s clear on the evening of 16 April, have look out to the west in the first couple of hours after dark and you will see a very thin crescent Moon in between the red star Aldebaran and the red planet Mars, while on 17 April, the crescent Moon will be right next to Mars.

This month’s full Moon occurs early on the morning of 27 April, but you can see it rise on the evening of 26 April. It is often called the Pink Moon because of the pink flowers – phlox – that bloom in early spring in North America. This will be the second of 4 supermoons this year, making it at Pink Supermoon. On that day, it will be 222,212 miles from Earth, its second closest approach of the year. It will therefore appear as second-largest and second-brightest moon of the year, but the best supermoon will be on 26 May, when it will be 221,117 miles from Earth.

This month’s full Moon is also known as the Egg Moon or the Paschal Moon because it is used to calculate the date for Easter. For those you who wonder why Easter does not occur on the same date each year, the rule is that Easter falls on the Sunday next following the Saturday that falls on or after the Full Moon next following the Vernal/Spring Equinox. This means that Easter can occur on any date from March 22 through to April 23. As this year’s Equinox was on March 20 and the next full Moon was on March 28, Easter Sunday falls on 4 April.

Jupiter and Saturn and Mercury are now in the early morning sky, sitting quite close together, rising above the south-eastern horizon at about 4:30 am.
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Meanwhile, in the western evening sky you will find Mars. Over the last month, it has moved away from the red giant Aldebaran, marking the eye of Taurus the bull and you will now find it near the Castor and Pollux, the twin stars in Gemini. It will be visible from just after sundown until about 1:30 am, when it dip below the western horizon.

Towards the end month, Venus will begin to make an appearance after sunset, low down on the west. It will set just after 9:00 pm, but it should be bright enough for you to spot it in the twilight after sunset.

After several months without any major meteor showers, we now have the Lyrid meteor shower this month. It starts on 16 April and reaches its peak on the night of 21-22 April, when its dust particles that originate from the comet Thatcher hit our atmosphere are expected to produce around 15-20 meteors per hour. However, a good number of meteors can usually be seen on the night before and the night after the peak. 
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The meteors will appear to emanate from the constellation of Lyra (The Lyre) at a point near Vega, the constellation’s brightest star and the fifth brightest star in the night sky. You will find Vega over in the north-eastern night sky from 10:00 pm, although you don’t need to look there to see meteors as they’ll appear across the whole night sky. 

This year, the moon will be about 65% full and bright enough to drown out a lot of the meteors, so the best time to look for them will be between moonset and sunrise, or from about 4:00 am and 6:00 am. However, as the meteor shower’s radiant point in Lyra will be high in the sky by midnight, you could start watching for them from then.

​Last week, I found myself with an unexpected hour or so to spare at Corran Point, so decided to go for a walk and find the Ardgour War Memorial, which is located up on a bank just south of the lighthouse and above the road. The main reason for doing this was to scout out the location in advance of me going there at some point after dark to photograph the Memorial under the stars. This is something that I do when preparing for most of my night shots as it is so much easier to figure out a composition in daylight than it is in the pitch dark.

​Having walked from the Corran Ferry, I reached the bend in the road by the Lighthouse and followed a track up into a field beyond a metal gate. I found the War Memorial at the top of a bank overlooking Loch Linnhe, with expansive views all the way down its full length to the south. The Memorial itself is typical of the many that you find scattered across the Highlands, consisting of a granite Celtic cross and plinth mounted on a base of what seemed to be made of local stone.

​Gradually, I began thinking ahead to my future shot of the War Memorial under the stars and, eventually, I began looking at different shot angles of the Memorial to see if I could find some compositions that might work for the photograph that I had in mind. My plan is to take it later in the year when the Milky Way will be at its best, with its cloudy core above the horizon in the south to south-west sky. My aim is to produce something similar to these two shots that I’ve taken of the Strontian and Moidart war memorials in previous years.

While doing this, I noticed that the Memorial’s stone base was sitting on what appeared to be a metal ring with several bolts protruding from it. You can see the metal ring and bolts in the picture below and the more that I thought about them, the more I couldn’t help wondering what they had been used for. 

This played on my mind for a day or two, leading me to do a bit of research to find out more about them. After looking at a few sources, I found some information in the Highland Historic Environment Record, that suggested that a gun battery was built on that spot in 1917, to provide protection for the United States ships unloading naval mines at Corpach that were then transported in smaller boats through the Caledonian Canal to the US Naval Base at Inverness.

Further research uncovered a report titled “The Built Heritage of the First World War in Scotland” that was commissioned by Historic Scotland which confirms that the gun battery was built there and that it comprised two 15-pdr guns and one 7.5-inch howitzer bolted down onto steel rings called holdfasts, which were set into plain concrete slabs. It turns out that the War Memorial was built on one of these concrete slabs and the steel ring at its base is one of these holdfasts. The Imperial War Museum does have a photograph of the gun battery which was taken in 1918 and shows the Royal Marine Gun Crews manning the guns. In it, you can see that there is no parapet around the guns and that the ammunition for them was stored in wooden lockers close by. I’ve asked the Imperial War Museum for a licence to publish this photograph and hope to be able to share it with you at some point.

Another question came to my mind while I was researching all this – Why was the United States Navy shipping naval mines to Corpach and then transporting them up the Caledonian Canal to Inverness? Well, the answer is that the mines were being used in the North Sea Mine Barrage which was a large minefield laid easterly from the Orkney Islands, right across the top of the North Sea to Norway with the aim of preventing the U-Boats making their way from their bases in Germany and out into the Atlantic to attack the convoys that were bringing supplies from the United States to the British Isles.
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Laying this mine barrage was a huge undertaking and until World War II, it was the largest ever laid. It spanned the entire 230-mile width of the North Sea from Orkney and Norway and was between 15 to 35 miles wide. The Allied Forces began laying the mines in June 1918 and within a matter of a few months they had laid just over 70,000 of them at a total cost of just over £1bn in today’s money. The barrage was considered to be a great success and is credited with the destruction or damage of up to 21 U-Boats, but probably its greater effect was in shattering the morale of German submarine crews, thus helping to bring about the revolt of German seamen that marked the beginning of the defeat of Germany in World War I.

​So there you have it, a tiny little bit of history hidden beneath the Ardgour War Memorial in the form of a steel ring and some bolts giving a small clue of something that went before. I would never have thought that these incongruous bolts would have been part of what today would be the equivalent of a £1bn military project that is thought to have played a key part in bringing World War I to an end. A war that left more than 16 million people dead and also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people. Poignant, very poignant indeed.

This month, the sun sets around 6:30 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 8:30 pm onwards. If you look south, you will still see the winter constellations of Orion, Taurus, Auriga and Gemini that I described in on my “Exploring Our Night Sky: February 2021” blog at the start of last month. Bear in mind that they will have moved a little bit to the west. Also, you will now be able to see some of the spring constellations coming into view, with the most significant of these being Leo (The Lion), which will be high up in the south-east sky.

Looking North, the thing to bear in mind is that the constellations you see do not change from month to month, it is only their orientation that changes. You can find the seven stars of the Plough up in the north-east and you can use its two right-hand stars to find the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Just follow the line between them for about five times its length and you’ll arrive at it.

Once you’ve found Polaris, you can use it to get your bearings on any night but bear in mind that all the northern constellations rotate around it in an anticlockwise direction and therefore change their position. It is also worth noting that Polaris is not that bright, with it being about the same brightness as the stars of the Plough. Its significance comes from it being directly above our North Pole.

Polaris is a second-magnitude star, about the same as the stars in the Plough or Cassiopeia, so don’t expect anything particularly bright. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the pole of the sky, but there is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries that shifts the position of the stars, and 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close as it is now.
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The constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer) was pretty much overhead last month and is now starting to sink down towards the western horizon but it’s still high up. It’s in the shape of a pentagon, with Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky, at its northern tip. Next to Capella is a triangle of three stars which, though much fainter, makes the whole constellation very recognisable. Below Auriga is the constellation of Perseus who, in Greek mythology, beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. Also, below Perseus, you may be able to pick out the W-shape of the constellation of Cassiopeia, so named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. ​

The first quarter moon is on 21 March and a few days before, on 18 March and 19 March, you’ll find the crescent moon lying close to, or in-between the Pleiades star cluster, the Hyades star cluster, Aldebaran, and Mars.
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You’ll see this month’s full moon on 28 March and this last of the winter season is referred to as the Worm Moon because of the earthworms that come out at the end of winter. It is also known as the Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Sugar Moon, and Chaste Moon. The Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is Lenten Moon.

The full moon on March 28 is the first of four supermoons this year and on that day, it will be 225,042 miles from Earth, it’s fourth closest approach of the year. It will therefore appear as fourth-largest and fourth-brightest moon of the year, but the best supermoon will be on 26 May, when it will be 221,117  miles from Earth.

Since disappearing from our night sky in late January, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury are now starting to make an appearance in our south-eastern morning sky and you might see them in the hour before sunrise, but they will be very low down on the horizon.
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Meanwhile, our western evening sky will have two red ‘stars’. To the left will be the red giant Aldebaran, marking the eye of Taurus the bull, while to the right lies Mars. The red planet is gradually moving away from Earth as the weeks pass, fading in brightness as is does so.

If you have a telescope, you may be able to spot Uranus lying down in the lower western sky as its current brightness means that it will be only just visible with the naked eye.
Venus and Neptune are not visible this month.

​We are now in a quiet period for meteor showers, until the Lyrid meteor becomes active on 16 April. It will peak on the night of 21-22 April, the night after a first quarter Moon. This means that the moon will be quite bright, so the best time to try and spot the Lyrids will be in hour or two between moonset and dawn.

The Zodiac is an 8° wide band that straddles the ecliptic, the invisible path that the Sun traces as it moves around the sky and is the region of the sky where we can find the Sun, Moon and planets (except for Pluto). It is only 8° wide because most of the planets have orbits that are only slightly inclined to that of the Earth. The exception is Pluto, whose orbital inclination of 17° takes it out of the zodiac during part of its orbit.
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At this time of year, the Zodiac rises steeply from the horizon at dusk, meaning now is great for looking out for and observing one of the night sky’s most elusive phenomena: Zodiacal Light. It is fainter than the Milky Way, so the darker your sky, the better your chances of seeing it. Go to a location with little or no night pollution, on a night when the moon is out of the sky and look for it in the west in the hour or two after sunset. If you are lucky, you may spot a faint pyramid of light rising from the horizon. 

This ghostly glow is caused by light from the sun, which will be well below the horizon at that time, reflecting off a fog of tiny interplanetary dust particles that fill our inner Solar System. It’s so difficult to see and many astronomers have never witnessed it, however, I was lucky enough to spot and photograph it at Sailen nan Cuileag on a dark night last month and I’ve used the resulting image as the header photo for this blog. The conditions for spotting it are good for the next 2-3 months, so do keep an eye out for it.

We are fast approaching the start of Meteorological Spring (March, April and May) and also the end of my fifth winter since moving to the Peninsulas. There is a noticeable difference in the hours of daylight as the nights shorten and it will not be long before the landscape begins to spring back into life. I find myself thinking back on the winter months of December, January and February; and also a question I’m often asked by people visiting – “How do you cope with all the snow in winter?”
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Why this question gets asked always intrigues me. It seems to always happen when standing on the decking outside my studio looking at Loch Sunart and all the hills that surround it. Could it be because this remote and rugged landscape looks foreboding? Could it be because we are well north of where most people live? Who knows? Well, whatever it is, my answer is always the same - “It’s never a problem here as we don’t get that much snow and when we do get it, it is usually only high up on the hills. In fact, if the snow does fall down here at sea level, it only lasts a day or two at the very most and I guess that being on a bit of land that sticks out into the sea on the west coast means that the Gulf Stream keeps the temperatures up”.

​​This is indeed true and it is complete contrast to the snowy winters I experienced when growing up on the east side of Scotland when, in the days without central heating, thick frost would form on the inside of the windows and we’d need to scrape a little hole in it to reveal what was outside. I do miss “proper” winters like that, but looking back over the last few months, it certainly feels as if we’ve had one this time. In fact, we’ve just had our coldest January since 2010, with the average temperature recording in Scotland being 0.6°C while my weather station here at Resipole recorded an average of 2.9°C. The strong northerly air flow that brought the low temperatures also brought substantial sunshine with it and plenty of cold, crisp and clear days on which I just had to get out with the camera.

Looking back through my images from the last few months reminded me that this “proper” winter weather was not just limited to January. Indeed, we saw our first snow at the end of November while having a staycation at Kingairloch Estate over on the east side of the Peninsulas. We woke up on a morning towards the end of our week away to see snow on the distant high peaks of Glencoe and the Mamores. This prompted a drive up the shore of Loch Linnhe to get a closer look.

​The snow-capped mountains looked lovely under the clear blue sky and we just had to stop at Lochan Doire a' Bhraghaid to take in the view. From there you get a fantastic view of Ben Nevis because you can see it through a gap in the hills above Inversanda. While there, I took this shot of the snow-covered slopes of Ben Nevis, some 17 miles to the north and made a mental note to myself to come back at some point and capture it when it had the first light of a winter day on it.

This first of the winter snow on the hills lasted for just over a week, but before it disappeared, I headed to West Ardnamurchan and up to a spot high on the slopes of Beinn Bhuidhe above Glenmore. It’s a great place to capture panoramic views of Loch Sunart or use a long lens to not only pick out elements of the high hills of Morvern on the other side of Loch Sunart, but also of Loch Teacuis, which cuts its way southwards into them.
 
Unfortunately, I always seem to time my visits to the slopes of Beinn Bhuidhe on days when the light does not want to do what I need it to do. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve left Resipole under promising looking skies only to arrive at my spot and find thick cloud and no light on the landscape. I thought that this time was going to be another like that because thick cloud greeted me on my arrival.
 
As I followed the path up to Beinn Bhuidhe, I kept looking at the cloud filled sky in the hope that it would clear a little and let through some light, but it didn’t. Undeterred, I set up at my chosen spot and sat for about an hour, sheltering as best I could from the biting easterly wind, while looking through the long-lens I’d fitted to the camera in search of some compositions that might work if the light did appear. I had almost given up hope, but in the few minutes before the sun was due to dip below the hills to the south-west, a small gap appeared to let a patch of light fall on the snow-capped peak of Beinn Iadain, one of the high peaks of Morvern. The resulting image shows the peak of Ben Iadain sporting a crown of golden light with the north facing slopes of Beinn Ghormaig, the Isle Carna and the Isle of Risga sitting in front of it.

​Thankfully, not all my shots are so hard won and occasionally good fortune smiles on me. In early December, a few weeks after my time on Beinn Bhuidhe, I had a batch of Christmas orders to take to the Post Office in Acharacle and while packing them all into the car, I could not help but notice some hints of colour appearing in the sky to the west. It looked promising, so I decided to take my camera gear with me just in case. I sure wasn’t disappointed with what unfolded.
 
As I drove down into the village, I could see the mist beginning to form in the air above Loch Shiel, so instead of going straight to the Post Office, I took the short detour down to the jetty in village to check out the conditions on the loch. As I stood on the jetty, I watched the pinks and purples of a winter sunset intensify while mist rolled down the loch and I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of calm, as well as whole load of good fortune about my decision to take my camera gear with me.
 
I was there for well over an hour, photographing scenes in different directions and under different light conditions before deciding that I really needed to get to the Post Office before it closed. Both jobs done. Parcels posted and a number of “keepers” captured including this panoramic image of the sunset colours at their peak.

​Finding myself in January and in a new year, my mind was still set on capturing the shot of the first light of the day on the snow covered peak of Ben Nevis. The shot that I had thought of when I saw the first snow of this winter on the hills back in November.
 
With clouds usually covering its summit for nearly 80% of the winter months, photographing Ben Nevis sure turned out to be a bit of a wating game. There needed to be a clear morning during a spell of the weather cold enough to put snow on the Ben and freeze the surface of Lochan Doire a' Bhraghaid. Finally, at the start of the second week in January, the conditions seemed very promising and I headed up into the hills above Inversanda for sunrise in the hope that I’d get the shot I was looking for.
 
Setting up in the dark, I couldn’t see if Ben Nevis was clear of cloud, but the moon and stars above my head suggested that it could be. As I waited for the first light of what was a very cold January morning to appear, the mountain began to emerge from the darkness and it looked as if my luck was in. Eventually, the first light of the day shone on its south facing upper slopes and there was just enough cloud to enhance the pink of the sunrise which, even at a distance of 17 miles, was reflected back onto the frozen surface of the lochan. I love it when a plan comes together.

​The last week in January brought a few days of very heavy snowfall which, very unusually left a couple of inches of the white stuff all the way down to the seashore. Equally unusual were day and night-time temperatures so low that the snow at sea level did not disappear. As I watched successive tides wash fresh falls of snow from the loch shore, I thought that an image of snow lying on a sandy beach all the way down to the water would be worth capturing and that the beach at Ardtoe would be a great place to do it.
 
With this in mind, I awoke early on a morning after heavy overnight snow had been forecast. On opening the curtains to a freshly snow-covered landscape, I decided to head out to Ardtoe. With much anticipation, I left the house but as I drove closer and closer to my destination the clear skies became more and more obscured by mist. This is not unusual because the low ground around Loch Shiel often cradles mist on cold and still winter mornings. So undeterred, I continued my journey to the beach as experience suggested that it would be clear there. However, it was not to be and I was greeted by a snow-covered beach shrouded in thick mist. The more I waited for the mist to clear, the thicker and thicker it seemed to become, so I eventually decided to head home.
 
On the drive back through a beautiful snow-covered landscape, I thought that the conditions were too good to submit to failure and began racking my brains to figure out a place where a combination of misty conditions and fresh snow fall could work together. I eventually decided to take a small detour to the old bridge over the River Shiel at Blain to see what it was like there. When I arrived, I was not disappointed. The scene was stunning with all the trees covered in the freshly fallen snow and some beautiful light fighting its way through the mist behind the bridge. After an extremely productive half hour, I left with a few images, including this one of the bridge, with the river beneath it coloured by golden light fighting to break through the mist behind it.  Thank heavens for a little local knowledge and for figuring out a Plan B.

​It’s been a winter just like the ones I remember from my childhood. I’ll remember it not only for its snow and its cold, clear days but also for it being a winter that has given me an extremely productive time for my photography. The images I’ve included in this blog are just a small sample of those that I’ve captured and if you’d like to see more, you can find the in the Recent Images Gallery on this website. I hope you enjoy them.

​This month, the sun sets around 5:20 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 7:20 pm onwards. In addition, the night sky for this month is very similar to last month’s with Orion (the Hunter) Taurus (the Bull) and Auriga (the Charioteer) filling much of it. As darkness falls, the most obvious constellation you’ll see is Orion, which can easily be found by spotting the line of three bright stars (Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka) which make up Orion’s Belt. You’ll see it appear not long after dark if you look in the sky to the south along with the quadrilateral of other stars that surround it to make up Orion’s torso and legs. His shoulders are formed by Bellatrix to the right and the far brighter, blood-red Betelgeuse to the left. The slightly brighter, blue-white Rigel is Orion’s right foot, while the fainter Saiph is his left foot.

If you follow the line of Orion’s belt heading left and slightly down, you will find Sirius the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major (the Greater Dog), the larger or Orion’s two hunting dogs which is depicted as chasing Lepus, the Hare – a faint constellation directly below Orion. Sirius is also the brightest star in the night sky and appears very low down at our northern latitude. This can cause it to twinkle quite strongly, especially on a clear frosty night.
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Orion other dog, Canis Minor or the Lesser Dog, can be found directly to his left and its main star is Procyon, the 8th brightest star in the sky. Above Procyon are two stars, Castor and Pollux, which mark the heads of the Twins, Gemini. The bodies of the Twins are the two lines of stars which extend towards Orion.

Another thing you can see in the southern sky is the Winter Circle, a pattern of stars that is not a constellation. It’s made up of a lot of separate stars, in different constellations, so it’s what is called an asterism. It doesn’t form a perfect circle, but instead a hexagon that you can find if you start at Capella and move clockwise to Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, and Castor. In addition to the Winter Circle, Orion’s bright star Betelgeuse forms an equilateral triangle with the stars Sirius and Procyon. This what is called the Winter Triangle.

If you go back to Orion’s belt and look carefully about half way down between it and the two stars that mark the Hunter’s left and right feet, you should be able to see a bright patch. This is the Orion Nebula, one of the brightest nebulae, or clouds of gas from which stars are born in the sky. One of many in our Milky Way galaxy, it lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth and is some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter. Look at it with binoculars or a telescope and you should see swirls of gas, though the darker and clearer the sky you have, the better. In it, you should also be able to pick out The Trapezium Cluster, which is made up of four bright stars that are only a million or so years old, babies on the scale of star lifetimes.
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Looking north, the thing to bear in mind is that the constellations you see do not change from month to month, it is only their orientation that changes. Look for the seven stars of the Plough, up in the north-east, and the W-shape of Cassiopeia, high up in the north-west at this time of year.  The Plough is known as the Big Dipper in North America. Use its two right-hand stars to point towards the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Once you’ve found it, you can use it to get your bearings on any night, though all the other northern constellations wheel around it anticlockwise.

Polaris is a second-magnitude star, about the same as the stars in the Plough or Cassiopeia, so don’t expect anything particularly bright. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the pole of the sky, but there is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries that shifts the position of the stars, and 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close as it is now.

As Capella is pretty much overhead you will also see it when you are looking north. It is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. You’ll find Arcturus over in the North-East. It is the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes (the Herdsman), the fourth-brightest in the night sky, and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere. You’ll find Vega low down on the northern horizon. It is the brightest star on the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre), the fifth-brightest in the night sky, and the second-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere.

The first quarter moon is on 19 February when it will by lying to the left of Mars, the right of Aldebaran and below the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster. The night before, on 18 February, it will by lying below and very close to Mars.
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You’ll see this month’s full moon on 27 February. It is named the Snow Moon after the snowy weather typically found in North America in this month and some North American tribes named it the Hunger Moon due to the scarce food sources during mid-winter, while other names are Storm Moon and Chaste Moon, but the last name is more common for the March Full Moon.

Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus have all now disappeared from view, leaving the only one of the five bright planets, Mars, visible to us this month. It continues to move further and further away for us, becoming less bright as it does so, however it is still bright enough for us to make out its reddish glow.
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If you have a telescope, you may be able to spot Neptune and Uranus, our two outermost planets, lying to the lower right of Mars. Neptune sets at around 7:30pm while the slightly brighter Uranus sinks below the horizon around midnight.

​We are now in a quiet period for meteor showers, until the Lyrid meteor becomes active on 16 April. It will peak on the night of 21-22 April, the night after a first quarter Moon. This means that the moon will be quite bright, so the best time to try and spot the Lyrids will be in hour or two between moonset and dawn.

​This month, the sun sets around 4:15 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 6:15 pm onwards. As darkness falls, the most obvious constellation you’ll see is Orion (The Hunter), with its three bright stars in a line, surrounded by a quadrilateral of other stars. You see it rising in the east not long after dark and by 10:00 pm it will be up there in the centre of the southern sky. As it is the brightest constellation in the sky, you’ll be able to see it even when there is a bright moon or some light pollution.

You will find Auriga (the Charioteer) directly above Orion. Its brightest star is Capella, which is at the top of a great pentagon of stars that make up the Charioteer’s pointed helmet. At this time of the year, Capella is almost overhead and there is a little group of three fainter stars just to one side of it. There are four other stars in the big pentagon making up the rest of the constellation.
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If you follow the line of Orion’s belt heading left and slightly down, you will find Sirius. It is in Canis Major, the Greater Dog. It is the brightest star in the night sky and appears very low down at our northern latitude. This can cause it to twinkle quite strongly, especially on a clear frosty night.

Canis Major is just one of Orion’s dogs. The other, Canis Minor or the Lesser Dog, can be found directly to his left and its main star is Procyon, the 8th brightest star in the sky. Above Procyon are two stars, Castor and Pollux, which mark the heads of the Twins, Gemini. The bodies of the Twins are the two lines of stars which extend towards Orion.

Another thing you can see in the southern sky is the Winter Circle, a pattern of stars that is not a constellation. It’s made up of a lot of separate stars, in different constellations, so it’s what is called an asterism. It doesn’t form a perfect circle, but instead a hexagon that you can find if you start at Capella and move clockwise to Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, and Castor. In addition to the Winter Circle, Orion’s bright star Betelgeuse forms an equilateral triangle with the stars Sirius and Procyon. This what is called the Winter Triangle.

​If you go back to Orion’s belt and look carefully about half way down between it and the two stars that mark the Hunter’s left and right feet, you should be able to see a bright patch. This is the Orion Nebula, one of the brightest nebulae, or clouds of gas from which stars are born in the sky. One of many in our Milky Way galaxy, it lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth and is some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter. Look at it with binoculars or a telescope and you should see swirls of gas, though the darker and clearer the sky you have, the better. In it, you should also be able to pick out The Trapezium Cluster, which is made up of four bright stars that are only a million or so years old, babies on the scale of star lifetimes.
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Looking North, the thing to bear in mind is that the constellations you see do not change from month to month, it is only their orientation that changes. Look for the seven stars of the Plough, up in the north-east, and the W-shape of Cassiopeia, high up in the north-west at this time of year.  The Plough is known as the Big Dipper in North America. Use its two right-hand stars to point towards the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Once you’ve found it, you can use it to get your bearings on any night, though all the other northern constellations wheel around it anticlockwise.

Polaris is a second-magnitude star, about the same as the stars in the Plough or Cassiopeia, so don’t expect anything particularly bright. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the pole of the sky, but there is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries that shifts the position of the stars, and 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close as it is now.

We start the month with a pretty full moon because we had a full moon on 30 December. The last quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 6 January and there is a new Moon (no moon) on 13 January. 

​The first quarter moon is on 20 January and will by lying very close to Mars and on the 22 it will be near the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster.
You’ll see this month’s full moon on 28 January. It is named the Wolf Moon, after the howling of hungry wolves lamenting the scarcity of food in midwinter. Other names include the Moon After Yule, Old Moon, Ice Moon, and Snow Moon.

At the start of the month, Mars is brighter than any of the stars in the night sky, with the exception of Sirius, but will fade as it moves away from us through the course of the month. You’ll see it high up in the south to southwest, between Pisces and Aries, before it finally sets at around 1:30 am.
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At the start of the month, Jupiter and Saturn can be seen lying very low on the south-western horizon in the twilight after sunset before finally disappearing from the night sky at about the middle of the month. However, as they disappear, Mercury starts to become visible in this part of the sky for a short period of time. By the end of the month, it will be visible until about 6:00 pm.

This month, Venus continues to be in the morning sky, rising in the south-east at around 6:30 am, but as it’s sinking down into the twilight, it will disappear from view by the end of the month.

​The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak on the night of January 2 to 3 and would normally put on a good show. This year however, the moon will be 84% full, so you will only be able to see the brightest of its shooting stars. If you do decide to look for them, then the best time is when the meteor shower’s radiant point is at its highest point in the sky. You can find the Quadrantid radiant in the north sky, directly below The Plough and to the left of the bright star, Arcturus and it will be at its highest in the hours before dawn on the morning of January 3. However, as it rises from around 10:00 pm on January 2, you can start watching for shooting stars from then. Also bear in mind that you don’t have to look north as the meteors will appear across all of the sky.

As my fourth Spring of living here on the Peninsulas comes to an end and we move towards Summer, I find myself reflecting on a sight that never ceases to mesmerise me during April and May. It is the sight of delicate Bluebells creating intense blankets of colour in the woodlands, on the hillsides and along the verges throughout the length and breadth of the peninsulas. However, things might not be as they seem. Are these really bluebells that I am seeing in this incredible wildflower spectacle?

There are many legends and much folklore associated with both the English Bluebell (Hyacinth) and the Scottish Bluebell (Harebell). Over the years, both have been referred to as the same thing, so it is often difficult to decide what tales apply to which flower. 
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However, it would appear that many of the English Bluebell tales involve dark fairy magic with bluebell woods being portrayed as scary, forbidding places that should be avoided. They say that if you do enter, you should never pick or step on a bluebell. This is because the faeries hang their spells on the bluebell flowers and if you break their spells, they get extremely upset and seek you out. It is believed that once visited by an upset faerie, you will be led astray and find yourself wandering lost in the woods for evermore.

Legend and folklore say that you need to be equally careful with the Scottish Bluebell as its alternative name, Harebell, has its roots in magic. As well as being called the Harebell, the Scottish Bluebell is also referred to as Witch's Thimbles, Witch Bells, Fairies’ Thimbles, Dead Man’s Bells, Aul’ Man's Bells, the Devil’s Bells, and Milk-ort to name but a few. 

Some would argue that Harebell was the name given to the flower because witches would turn themselves into hares and hide among them. This may also be the reason why the names Witch's Thimbles and Witch Bells were used.

Fairies' Thimbles was given to it because it was widely thought that fairies live among the flowers, while Dead Man's Bells arose from the belief that fairies cast lethal spells on those who would dare to trample on or pick the delicate blooms. 

“Aul’ Man” is an old Scottish nickname for the Devil himself and was used as a way of naming the Devil without invoking him by speaking his name.  So Aul’ Man's Bells and the Devil’s Bells were used as some thought that if the flowers were disturbed, they would ring and this would attract evil spirits, including the Devil himself.

Finally, Milk-ort (meaning "milk herb), was sometimes used because Harebells (Scottish Bluebells) produce a white milky sap which was thought to be an element in the hallucinogenic “flying ointments” used by some witches. 

So there you have it. Hyacinths or Harebells? English Bluebells and Scottish Bluebells? What’s in a name?
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I’m left thinking it doesn’t really matter because, as the wonderful carpets of English Bluebells in our damp and shady woodlands begin to fade, I’m looking forward to a second coming of blue as the Scottish Bluebells emerge from the dry, grassy places that fringe our sandy beaches.

If lockdown allows, I’ll venture to these beaches out to the west of me to capture their delicate papery flowers nodding in the sea breeze, all the while taking care not to summon the faeries, the witches or indeed the Aul’ Man himself.

What’s in a Name?

​If you take a walk through Ariundle Oakwood, you’ll see a woodland floor covered with hundreds of moss-covered boulders which, with a little bit of imagination, could be mistaken for mounds that are home to the mythological sídhe, a supernatural race comparable to the faeries or elves. Indeed, the nearby village of Strontian got its name because of the faeries. In Scottish Gaelic, it is called Sròn an t-Sìthein, which translates as the ‘nose of the fairy hill’ and means a knoll or low round hill inhabited by the sídhe. ​

"Are they really that green colour and can you see it?”

The short answer to this question is yes, but our eyes can see only see the Northern Lights as a grey or bluish grey dancing light shapes in the sky. This is because of how our eyes work in the dark compared to how they work in daylight. 
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You see, the retina in the human eye contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. It has about 6 to 7 million cones and they provide the eye with the ability to distinguish colour. However, these cones only work effectively when it is light. On the other hand, the eye has about 120 million rods and these are far more effective at helping us to see in low light and near dark conditions, but they cannot distinguish colour. So, as it gets dark and the cones stop working, our eyes move from enabling us to see in full colour to enabling us to only see in black and white. This means that anything we look at in the dark, including the Northern Lights will only be seen in black and white and shades of grey.

On the other hand, the sensors that you find in digital cameras do not suffer from this limitation and are extremely effective at picking up both light and colour in the dark. This means that they pick up the colours in the Northern Lights that were present at the time meaning that the colours you see in the images produced by a camera are not a result of any photo editing. 

The auroral colours that are present are actually a result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere and charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Three colours tend to be present in the aurora, with each colour depending on the type of gas particles that are colliding. Green is the most common as most solar particles typically collide with our atmosphere at an altitude of around 60 to 150 miles where there are high concentrations of oxygen and it is particle collisions involving oxygen that produce a pale yellowish-green colour.

Blue and purple can also be present, but far less frequently than green as they tend to only appear when solar activity is high enough to cause particle collisions in our atmosphere at an altitude of 60 miles or less. At these heights, it is a reaction with nitrogen that causes the aurora to be tinged with purple or blue.

​After living for almost 30 years in and around Glasgow, I moved to Rockpool House located right on the shore of Loch Sunart and was immediately blown away by the number of stars I could see in the sky on a dark, clear night. Three years have passed and my interest in night photography has become a passion that produces some of my most popular images and the recent acquisition of a telescope now has me doing a bit of stargazing. So, in this blog, I thought I’d share a few tips for exploring the night sky if you visit here and find yourself a under a sky that is so dark that you can see the Milky Way and over 7000 stars.

​Where to Go
While I can walk out of the front door and see these 7000 stars, I usually go a little further afield to photograph the landscape under the night sky. I usually look for places with a clear view south or south-west to photograph the Milky Way and places with a clear horizon to the north that overlook water to photograph the Northern Lights. If you are here, then I suggest that you go to one of the seven places that are listed on the Dark Skies page of the West Highland Peninsulas website.

When to Go
I find that the best time to photograph or look at the night sky is in the time window between 2 hours after sunset and 2 hours before sunrise. As we are pretty far North, this means that the best times of year to look are Autumn, Winter and Spring when the nights are long and dark enough. Also, the light from the moon can make it difficult to see the stars, so it is best to look when there is little or no moon in the sky. Given this, it is best to check our local sun and moon times to decide when best to go out. You should also check the weather for when clear nights are forecast.

​How to Look

• ​Use your naked eyes – You can see a lot with just your naked eyes. All you need to do is to give them 10-15 minutes to adjust fully to the dark. Be patient and you will find that you’ll suddenly see twice as many stars.
• Use a red torch – Once your eyes have adjusted to the dark it is very easy to lose your “night vision”. Avoid using and looking at bright lights. Instead use a red light, such as a bike light, as this doesn’t affect you night vision.
• Stay warm – Clear, dark nights are often very cold, so wrap up warm. Wear plenty of layers, a hat and gloves. If you are going to be out for a while, think about using heat wraps or charcoal hand warmers.
• Use Star Charts – Use a star chart to find your way around. These can be downloaded free from Skymaps.com. Alternatively, you can use a smartphone app such as Pocket Universe.

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​What to See

• ​Milky Way – The best way to see it is by looking directly overhead during autumn and early winter evenings and you'll see this shimmering river of light streaming through the constellations of Cassiopeia and Cygnus.
• Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) – They can happen at any time of the year, but the best time is the Autumn and Winter when the sky is really dark, with Autumn being better as it tends to have more clear nights. Check AuroraWatch UK or Aurora Alert  for forecasts and alerts.
• Stars and Constellations – Winter is the best time, when you can look to the south and see the grand constellations of winter: Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Gemini, and Canis Major.  These constellations are rich with stars and star clusters, with the most brilliant stars being Capella, Castor and Pollux, Procyon, Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, and Betelgeuse.
• Planets – From March and the onset of Spring, the visible planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn grace our skies after sunset and during the night. First are Mercury and Venus in the west right after sunset, with Venus being the brighter of the two. Next is Jupiter rising in the east around midnight. Mars follows in the time between midnight and sunrise and Saturn appears in early morning.
• Meteor Showers – They happen at predictable times throughout the year and are best seen when the moon is absent, which will change from year to year. Look out for the annual Quadrantids (January), Lyrids (April), Perseids (August), Orionids (peaks in October), Leonids (November) and Geminids (December). If you do try see them, then spend at least an hour outside doing so as they tend to happen in fits and starts. Check out Earthsky.org’s meteor shower guide for the best times to look.