Si's Lens

I'm an astro, landscape and wildlife photographer from Bristol. If I'm outside I'm happy!

26/07/2026

I've returned to this image- my original 2023 post didn't do it justice- I somehow didn't process the MW very well back then, but I feel I've done it well now! 😊

What a night! Early-season Milky Way Arch and Moonrise captured from a very windy 2,400m altitude on La Palma (April 2023)

There was quite a lot of Saharan dust in the atmosphere whilst I was there, hence the orange colouration, but the MW rose just enough to clear most of it. I had to be really careful with my timing as the moonlight very soon after washed the MW out entirely. The spring flowers add some vibrancy to the volcanic foreground.
This is my biggest panorama to date- 38 individual panels. Each shot at 24mm (Samyang 24mm f1.4) with astro-modified Canon 80D- I had to halve the resolution just to process it!
Sky shots were at f2, 1.5mins each, iso 800, tracked with Fornax Lightrack 2 mount, sat on Benro Mach 3 tripod..heavily ballasted with rocks!

22/07/2026

Thought I'd have another go at this famous one, the 'Pillars of Creation'.

I've added more data with a different filter, and my processing has improved.
This time rendered in SHO palette.

This is the heart of the Eagle Nebula, Messier 16, see second image for wider view.

Around 7000 light years from Earth, the pillars are named so because the gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars, while also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed. They're around 5 light years tall 🤯

12hrs of data now, taken through 125mm APO refractor, combining HaO3 and S2O3 filters, shot with astromod Canon 80D.

29/05/2026

Another image from my wild camp on Dartmoor this week.
Canon EOS R with Samyang 24mm f1.4.
Untracked, shot at f2, ISO 6400. Two shot 'Verterama'

27/05/2026

Isolated lightning storm, a giant lightsaber, stars, and setting moon.
That's what you get on fabulous Dartmoor on a wild camp! 😅
(Oh and transpires quite a lot of ticks to dig out, but some things are worth it..)
Single exposure, 13 seconds, ISO 6400, f2.
Canon EOS R with Samyang 24mm f1.4.

23/05/2026

Progress! This year's version of the Needle Galaxy...

What you're looking at is a distant (30-50 million light years away) aligned perfectly edge on to our view 🤯

10 hrs of exposures from my garden in Bristol.

1:1 resolution, (1350 px) only occupies a small part of the frame despite my almost 1m focal length.

27/04/2026

The beautiful Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, one of my favorite regions of the night sky!
You can find this by following the pointing front legs of the Dark Horse Nebula in the milky way core to Antares, the bright yellow star middle lower. Also the globular start cluster M4 can be seen. The region is one of the closest start forming regions to us at just 460 light years. The dark streaks are areas of interstellar dust hiding the stars behind.
This is a reprocess, with much better skills on my part, of some old data, just 20 mins of exposure from a dark site. (Canon 80D, Canon 100mm L macro lens, Fornax Lightrack 2 tracker, Benro Mach 3 tripod. f2.8, ISO1600, 240 seconds x 5)

23/04/2026

I spent a cracking night with Gregg Wyber at Winspit Quarry Tuesday night to capture the Milky Way from one of the caves...

11/04/2026

One I've never imaged before- M63, the Sunflower Galaxy!
This one's quite far away- 30,000,000 light years! As such, it's pretty small in each exposure, being only 500 pixels across, so perfect focus and guiding was a must.
It's thought to contain 400 billion stars. It's tightly-wrapped arms extend 13,000 LY from its nucleus.
9 hrs of unfiltered 2-min exposures from the garden here in Bristol, at 940mm focal length, (Technosky 125mm APO refractor), imaging with a crop-frame Canon EOS 80D DSLR, sat on a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 GT Pro mount and ASIAIR combo.

Address

Bristol

Website

https://sinewman.picfair.com/

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