I experienced a magical shoot in mid-May at Cox/Staple Tor. I drove down at dusk and was initially concerned about the mist that appeared to be lingering around the country lanes as I headed to the car park. Once I had walked up to the Tor and my shooting location, the mist had dropped into the dip between Cox and Staple Tor, forming the most amazing cloud inversion.
I knew the conditions could change rapidly, so despite it not being fully dark, I captured my first composition featuring the inversion, myself, and the brightest stars fighting the dwindling twilight.
Cox Tor looking over towards Great Mist Tor.
Shortly after I took this image, thick fog engulfed the tor, and I wondered if that was the end of the night shoot. Thankfully it settled down again, and I visited my second location as the darkness of night arrived. This view looks towards Bodmin, and you can see Brent Tor pocking out from the fog. Venus shined brilliantly bright, making a striking feature to the image.
Venus & Brent Tor as seen from Cox Tor.
Person in the scape to add perspective.
Conditions like this, don’t happen often on Dartmoor so I was determined to create as many compositions as possible. So I walked across to Great Staple Tor and created these three additional composition before calling it a night.
May continued to deliver some stunning dark, clear skies. My location for this shoot took me to Dartmoor's Bowen's Nose. This night's forecast hinted at a chance of Aurora, so I made a few north-facing compositions to try my luck. The Aurora didn't pay a visit, but it was a pleasant night.
My final May shoot took me to Bude, where I met up with a few other astrophotographers to capture some coastal scenes. The moon was up for part of the night, splashing wonderful light over the landscape. I did some star trails and worked to feature the coastal flowers scattered across the coastline. It was a fantastic night to end my May astrophotography adventures!
