Bright star burning

Last month, at the first meeting of the Galway Camera Club’s 2011-2012 term, Brian Callaghy was called upon to make a little speech. He only said a few words, mainly to thank people for their support and to comment on how the time had flown. Brian was one of the founder members of the club, and a constant presence. I didn’t attend last Thursday’s meeting of the Camera Club, though Brian did. Sadly, it was one of the last things he did – he passed away suddenly on Friday. I hope I have as much passion for photography until my last day as Brian had.

The image above is of the International Space Station flying over the lock gates of Galway Harbour earlier this evening [the white streak in the upper right of the picture]. I drove down from Athlone, stopped at my house to collect a tripod, and then went straight to this location. I had just got the camera on the tripod and took one test shot when the ISS began its flight across the sky. Near the centre of the image (the white dot above the “Galway Lifeboat” sign) is the planet Jupiter – it is slightly elongated in this picture due to the long exposure (35 seconds).  Soon afterwards, the sky clouded over – it is raining as I write this.