After days of clear skies and sunshine, that have been gifted on the first days of the new year of 2025. Waking at midnight, the brightness outside calls to to look for a moon. There is none. Instead there is the inky horizon of night sky, dotted with a plankton sparkle of stars in sharp relief.
It’s a clarity of view which is rare and always breathtaking.
Normally it would be an image held only in memory. None of my usual photographic devices seem capable of capturing anything approaching what the eye can see. At least not without the absolute immobility of a tripod mounting. However, having just received a new phone for Christmas, it was a good opportunity to see what the new camera could do.
Using the night setting, and holding it as still as is possible for a handheld device while standing in the middle of the road, it performed well.
Excellent contrast, little blur, I am impressed. I have to admit, my favourite grouping of stars, and one of the most recognizable, is Orion’s belt. Orion is known as the hunter, or the archer, depending on the mythology. I am inspired to learn more. On a January night, when it appears most clearly in the northern hemisphere, it is reassuringly constant.
Here’s hoping that the peace and clarity of this sky above mirrors the possibility of clarity coming to other clouded issues on earth in the coming year.
LMC