The wonders of the night sky - and how to photograph it and them - provided the Isle of Man Photographic Society with the subject matter for last week’s meeting - from satellites to the International Space Station, from far-off galaxies to eclipses and the beauty of the aurora borealis.

Given one of our assignment competitions later in the season is ’After Dark’, it was a particularly relevant topic for our members, and one we had eagerly anticipated.

We were therefore delighted to welcome two expert speakers from the Isle of Man Astronomical Society to present to us - Jake Huxley and Kevin Deakes, the latter a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Both had very clearly taiored their presentations to our audience of keen photographers, with a wealth of superb images of the night sky, each carefully explained in terms of its context and science.

Jake started our evening with a particular focus on eclipses - partial and total, with images from a number of eclipses from around the world. Clearly a widely travelled man, his fascination with eclipses and the associated solar flares and sun spots provided us with much to enthuse about.

For the second half, Kevin Deakes was kind enough to explain that many of the images to be shown were shot with quite basic camera equipment, and - perhaps surprisingly - shot from his garden here on the island.

The message was clear - some great shots are possible given the commitment (images necessarily taken when most people are sound asleep in bed).

A rapid explanation of his kit - a digital camera with a range of fairly standard lenses and a very firm tripod plus a knowledge of the stars (perhaps assisted with some ’apps’ such as ’stellarium’ on a mobile phone or computer) - and we were off on a tour of the possibilities for night-time images. Eclipses, meteorites, satellites, the International Space Station, the aurora borealis, even deep space galaxies were all beautifully illustrated and clearly explained.

I, as president, gave a deserved vote of thanks on behalf of the membership.

The society meets at the Art Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Withington Road, Douglas, with all meetings starting at 7:30pm.

Our next meeting on Wednesday, December 12, is a members practical evening, with studio lighting to be set up for some portrait shots.

Meetings are open to the public, and all will be given a very warm welcome.

Full details of our programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com.

Chris Blyth