A snapper has captured a stunning shot of the Milky Way above a loch.
Steven Robinson, 37, set up at the Queen’s View vantage point at Loch Tummel, near Pitlochry on September 29.
The NHS physical therapist, from Perth, waited from 8pm to 1am to capture the picture using long exposure in the rural area with little light pollution.
He captured the central area of the Milky Way using a long exposure on a camera attached to a star tracker which rotates in the opposite direction from Earth, meaning stars can be captured in incredible detail.
Dad-of-one Steven said: “Scotland gets some of the best night skies in the world – totally black.
“From the star exactly in the centre of the image, from there down is the core region at the cloud.
“That is looking right into the centre of the Milky Way.
“It’s quite a labour-intenstive process.
“If you screw up you might have to come back another time, maybe even in a year because it might not align correctly.
“I feel quite humbled being there.
“There are some people who have never seen the Milky Way.
“It’s part of us.
“It keeps you humble when you look at these things and think about what’s actually out there.
“It’s too difficult to even comprehend it.”
Steven was inspired to try dark sky photography by the passing of Comet Neowise in the summer of 2020.
He said: “The Earth rotates on its axis and all the tracker does is rotate the other way.
“You put a camera on it and then take the camera over a long period of time.
“Visual astronomy – just looking through a telescope – can be a bit boring because you don’t see much but the camera picks up a lot more.”
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