Tinkering Story #08 – Night Sky and Wilton Windmill

This is my favourite windmill in England! I have been there a few times and taken a couple of shots I would like to share. I will keep updating this page, with more Wilton Windmill nightscapes.

No matter how well-planned a shooting is, there is always the possibility that something goes wrong.
But not this time! Tonight everything was on my side. The weather was fine, the view to the Windmill was unobstructed, thin clouds created a nice halo around the Moon, and even a flock of birds decided to cooperate passing by at the right moment!

This is the ‘Full Snow Moon’ taken on February 5, 2023. The smallest ‘micro moon’ of the year as the current Moon’s distance from the Earth is a bit further than average. At the time of the shooting, the Moon was more than 400.000 km away. My distance from the windmill was around 700 meters. The technique for bringing ‘together’ close distance and far away objects is called ‘Forced Perspective’. According to Wikipedia: ‘Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is.’

Winter sky above Wilton Windmill. The shot was taken on January 22, 2023, at a freezing temperature of around -5 °C. From left to right, Sirius, Orion constellation, Taurus constellation, planet Mars and Pleiades.

Moon and planet Venus. The shot was taken on May 22, 2023.

Lines in the sky! The curved lines are star trails, proof that the Earth rotates on its axis. The straight dotted lines are passing aeroplanes. An annoyance that I usually remove at post process. The other straight lines are artificial satellites orbiting the Earth. The jagged line at the bottom right is just me, wandering around with a flashlight. 🙂

Update September 8, 2023: After waiting for several weeks, a clear night at last! I managed to get a star trail and a few nightscape shots of the moonlight Windmill.

Wilton Windmill star trails.

Windmill starry night.

Wilton windmill and Orion constellation. The green sky colour is airglow. Airglow is sometimes confused with aurora but is a different phenomenon. It is the natural glow of the Earth’s atmosphere.