Day 23 - Whiteshell Point

Gower Peninsula

Pwlldu Head Twilight

Pwlldu Head Twilight
Seen across Caswell Bay from Whiteshell Point

Today I finally got the lights fixed on my car, which meant that I no longer had to get back home before dark. In spite of missing a wonderfully clear day, I was able to at least take advantage of the best part of it, the sunset. I first drove down to the Mumbles and stopped to grab a few telephoto shots of Swansea in the setting sun. This delayed me a little and so I missed the actual sunset.

I arrived at Caswell just after the sun had set and walked around the bay to Whiteshell point, where I wandered down onto the rocks to look for a good viewpoint. Coincidentally there was a high tide at that time and there were some fisherman nearby settling down to do some night fishing.

The view across the bay to Pwlldu Head was good and the light was extremely clear, giving me the opportunity to take longer and longer exposures as the light got darker and darker, and the colours got deeper and deeper. I ended up taking 15 second exposures with my digital camera and one minute exposures with my film camera.

When the colours on the horizon finally faded the stars had appeared, so I took a few wide angle shots that included Bootes and Ursa Major, and also a few night shots of the Caswell Bay flats, their lights casting long reflections over the wet sand and incoming waves. As I walked back the Milky Way was clearly visible and I spent some time identifying familiar constellations - Aquila, Sagitta, Delphinius, Cygnus, Lyra, Capricornus, Pegasus, Andromeda and so on. I even got the best view of Sagittarius that I've ever seen. It was great to be out in the dark again.