AN amateur astronomer has captured incredible photos of space 444 light years away – from the back of his car.
Bryan Shaw, 28, set up a telescope on an abandoned street free from light pollution to track star movement in the night skies above Cumnock in East Ayrshire.
His images show the stunning Pleiades star cluster – which features seven daughters and two parents, according to Greek mythology.
The snaps capture light emitted from the stars before Galileo observed the constellation with his own telescope in 1610.
Shaw, who has a photography business, headed out after work on Thursday on the first clear night in three weeks.
He said: “I put my stuff in the car and set up the telescope to track the targets in the sky.”
The photographer had been trying to capture Pleiades since March and when he succeeded he couldn’t “stop grinning”.
Shaw said: “Pleiades is actually an open star cluster and the dust clouds around it are reflected by the light of the actual stars, so it’s called a reflection nebula.
“That is the blue nebulas around the stars.
“The pretty cool thing about this is that the night sky is always changing and different targets become visible.”
Bryan’s telescope was shooting Pleiades between 12.30am and 2.30am while he was adjusting the telescope’s calibration setting.
The telescope automatically sends the images it takes to his tablet device, so he can start editing them – in this case, up until 7am.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel