Student stargazer’s stunning views of space from his backyard
A stargazing student has captured stunning images of space from his own back garden.
Bryan Shaw spent hours taking incredible snaps and mesmerising clips outside his New Cumnock home.
The fourth-year student captured the starry skies using a makeshift telescope as part of his end-of-year project for his BA Broadcast Production: TV & Radio course.
The 28-year-old - who only began taking photographs of space in April last year - devoted full nights to his project, taking images of the stars long into the small hours.
The former Cumnock Academy pupil managed to capture detailed images of star clusters and nebulas located light years away.
His stunning gallery of space pics include Pleiades, a cluster of more than 800 stars, a barred spiralled galaxy known as the Andromeda Galaxy and the Orion Nebula, a feature of the Milky Way.
Bryan, who also studied photography at Ayrshire College, said: “When I began taking these photographs, it was very much trial-and-error as to how best to do it.
“I tried different set-ups and different lenses before eventually settling on what I use now.
“It took time to figure out what the best way of doing this was. It wasn’t just about figuring out the perfect set-up, though - I had to learn how to identify and track what I wanted to photograph.”
Bryan has hailed the clear East
Ayrshire night skies for sparking his interest in gazing further into space.
He added: “I live rurally, and I always had the stars on my doorstep; and I know I’m incredibly fortunate that light pollution here is minimal.
“This inspired this project - I wanted to bring the stars to people who don’t get to see what I see. Even for people living where I live, I wanted to capture - or try to capture - a vision of space that they don’t see.
“The camera, due to its technical capabilities, is able to pick up things in the night sky that the naked eye cannot - colours, formations - details that are hidden to most.”
Bryan now hopes to continue his new hobby and has set his sights on capturing planets and craters on the moon.
He said: “It’s time-consuming, but I really do love this. I’m planning to get a bigger telescope to advance my knowledge, and let me capture things that I can’t at the moment.
“I want to take photos of individual planets, and craters on the moon - that’s what I’m planning. My ultimate ambition is to take a photo of a nebula known as Thor’s Helmet - it’s absolutely stunning, and it really does look like the helmet that belongs to Thor in the Marvel movies.”
BA Broadcast Production: TV & Radio Programme leader Paul Tucker said: “The photographs he has managed to take from an ordinary garden really are incredible, and he should be proud of what he has managed to achieve.”