An amazing image of the night sky over Finchampstead was captured last weekend.
Martin Lines told Wokingham Today that the image was taken on the night of October 14, on what he described as the first proper clear night of the winter season for stargazing.
He said: “It was taken on my Allsky camera that enables me to see live pictures of the sky for the weather during the day and the stars at night.
“It forms these pictures into time lapses and star trails pictures.
He added that his camera is homemade, and consists of a wide angle camera pointing skywards in a waterproof case. It has a miniature Raspberry Pi computer to control the camera and take and assemble the pictures.
For the star trails, it takes a picture approximately once per minute and then “stacks” them (mathmatically combines them) which shows the movement of the stars across the sky during the night.
Martin added: “From my garden in Nine Mile Ride, I have a view to the north over the house which means the Pole Star is in view.
“This means the picture then shows how the stars appear to orbit the Pole Star, it is in reality the Earth revolving around its North/South axis.
“The star trails appear to have colours in them if you look closely, and this is because stars are actually quite colourful (red giants, white dwarfs etc.)
Martin said he has been doing astrophotography since lockdown after seeing a news item on TV about star gazing from a light-polluted urban garden.
“I hadn’t realised it was possible, and have been amazed by the results from what is far from ideal conditions.”
Martin’s other astrophotography images, most of which were taken from Finchampstead, can be seen on his website.
