The Pacman nebula - first effort.

Just returned from a motorhome trip to Croatia. Whilst there I had the opportunity to image the nebula below.

My location was a forest clearing high in the Croatian mountains, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovenia. No light pollution but a full moon, so I was using a light pollution filter. Clear big open skies. Very chilly but still, no wind.

My sound scape was one of hooting tawny owls and barking sheepdogs, left out in the upland fields; their calls echoing across the hills for several miles. Thirty metres away, the sound of wild boar snuffling and squealing; crashing through the understory.

We all find being under a big sky looking up at stars and constellations, the faint milky way cloud, soothing and enlightening. Lulled into a peaceful contentment by the regular clicking of my DSLR, it was the rising hairs on the back of my neck, the first warning indication. Distant dogs had stopped their canine conversation; three dogs, a mere few hundred metres away had started one - frantic barks and growls. Tawny owls had gone silent; the boars gone to ground. As the moon rose above the pine forest canopy, shafts of light illuminated the little clearings below it.

Fleeting, rapidly moving shadows; darting and pausing, sniffing the air. I thought it was a myth. It truly isnt. Wolves really do howl at a rising full moon.

This night, I won the Guiness Book of World record entries for 'fastest pack up of astrophotography equipment'. As I slid beneath the duvet at 1am, the tousle haired beauty I have been married to for nearly forty years muttered " you are in early". "Wolves" I replied. "So get back out there so I can claim the life insurance then" came the unexpected sleepy reply!

I don't get this kind of hassle up at Lowery Cross on Dartmoor! And so this is my excuse for a poor image of the Pacman Nebula - sorry folks!

Equipment and processing:

Canon 800D and Zenithstar 61ii on EQM-35-PRO mount; ISO1600, 240" x 30 with no calibration frames. Poorly processed in SIRIL, GraXpert and Affinity Photo.