Autumn is here at last!

Summer was pretty darn nice, lovely weather, fun times, nice variety of work to keep me busy. But really, I quite like autumn when it arrives. Less ‘peopley’ and the light and the air are so much cleaner. Which makes for some good opportunities to get out with the cameras, tents, dog etc.

One thing that did happen to me during the latter part of summer was getting diagnosed with Myeloma. I’d been told to go to A&E by my GP surgery after calling them about what I thought was a chest infection and acute pain in top of my right lung. I’d also been having some issues with shortness of breath and lack of energy when on bike rides. I also thought I’d cracked a rib that may have contributed to the pain.

Many blood tests were taken, chest x-ray, CT scan, concerns were raised and I was promptly referred to a specialist Haematologist for Bone Marrow Biopsy at Torbay Hospital and a full body PET-CT scan at Derriford to confirm that I have blood cancer known as Myeloma.

Thankfully it’s in early stages, but enough to need a 6 month intensive treatment programme that should put me into remission very quickly.

I’ve barely done any street photography through the summer, but plenty of events. I did pretty much zero astrophotography since May when I was trying to get decent Milky Way images. But after the wettest couple of weeks to start September, to finish the month, the weather broke to reveal a dry, crisp and clear week of sunshine days and crystal clear nights.

After days, weeks and months of generally making excuses to myself not to get out for any clear sky opportunity, there was no excuse to not get out. New moon, clear skies and the milky way clearly visible from one of my fave vantage points at Hope’s Nose even with the light pollution from Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. Two evenings of sitting in the dark on my own for a couple hours with my camera and star tracker were just what I needed. So peaceful and the view overhead was just mind-blowing.

The same had to be said a couple days after when myself and wild camp/astrophoto partner in crime Andy Collins [aka @astropostie] headed to Dartmoor and bagged one of our best nights of clear sky in years.

We set up at Bonehill Rocks at sunset, which was a super nice one, and once the thin crescent moon set shortly after, the sky started to come alive. As we got closer to astronomical darkness the milky way started to become even easier to see with the naked eye as it arched over our camp spot.

We’ve both been using the Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker with out cameras. It’s a really small and portable unit that is mega easy to set up and it gives some great results. Here’s to plenty more clear sky wild camps over winter, although as I’m due to start treatments for Myeloma I’m not sure what my limitations are going to be yet.

I’ll be aiming to make some of these images available as prints so keep an eye on the shop page.

Catch ya later!

Martin