@Star - thanks!

Well, actually I was looking for the Perseids when I caught the plane! I didn't see any though; the NE horizon from my usual skywatching spot isn't that great. Unfortunately it's cloudy tonight, but I will look again tomorrow, weather permitting

@Robin - thanks! I think she's the prettiest vixen we've had here for many years, and she's very patient with the camera, too!

@Darko - yes, it's the various lights flashing as the plane flies across the sky. I wonder where it is going - and whether the people on board saw any meteors!

Thanks

@Jill - it's just a normal part of fox life. She might have knocked herself by jumping off a roof or misjudging a leap over a fence, but it's more likely that she was squabbling with another fox. Their ritual fights involve standing on their rear legs with their forepaws on each others' shoulders, attempting to push each other over! They often get sprains, but they usually clear up quickly. In fact I saw her just now, and she was walking up much better

Thanks!

@San - I hope you find some dark skies!

My strategy for star photos is something like this:
1) Use a wide angle lens
2) Put the camera on a tripod
3) Set the shutter speed to 30 seconds
4) Select a high ISO
5) Use a remote or cable shutter - touching the camera at all will lead to blurs!

The moon is easy to photograph because it's so bright and can take a quick exposure, but for long range shots of relatively faint objects like Jupiter, I bump the ISO up to ridiculous levels and keep the shutter speed around one or two seconds. The Earth is spinning so fast that you easily end up with the target moving a bit if you're not careful. Trails are fun, but I don't want them all the time! This is a fifteen minute exposure of Orion that I took a while back

@Erwin - thanks! I'm enjoying night photography right now

@Neil - light pollution is very It's not perfect here, especially for the northern sky, but I can see the milky way in summer, and plenty of other stuff like the Beehives and Orion's sword. I miss the big skies of Norfolk though And remote shutters come in handy for all sorts of things! I took the vixen photo with one; I cannot use flash on these foxes, and it's best way to stop shake associated with two second exposures!

Thanks

@Words - thanks

Weather...well, I guess that's the way it goes! Probably why professional astromoners prefer to live in Chile

@Shaunak - it's always interesting to try to freeze more than a fragment of time

Thanks

@Mark - *groan* what a pun!

Thanks

@Denis - it's getting back to the good season for astronomy

Thanks, that plane wasn't quite what I intended, but it was quite fun!

@Jenny - you can use the Great Bear to find the North Star, which, of course, has been used by generations of explorers to stop themselves getting completely lost. I know we never get lost, like, anywhere, but still, it's a handy skill

The Big Dipper is part of the Great Bear. Personally, I think it looks more like a saucepan than either of the other options!

Presumably it had a name before people developed cooking utensils, though!