
Walking back from a friends house the other night , I was amazed by the clarity of the milky way and decided that a photo of the galaxy had to be my next photographic project. The first problem was where to take the picture as I needed something atmospheric in the foreground, but with no light pollution. I decided on the ruined church of Knowlton which is near Wimbourne St Giles. This a well known pagan site and the church stands in the middle of a neolithic henge. . When I arrived at 11.00pm, I could see a group of people close to a pagan shrine that is there. If they were going to be there all night, this was going to be a problem for me as they had bright lamps. I walked over towards them and as I came into the fringe of their light, two of the girls in the group started screaming – not an effect I often have on people. It turned out they were a group of teenagers who had heard the site was haunted and they were ghost hunting – they thought I was a ghost! After an hour or so they left and I had to wait and wait for the slight cloud cover to clear – the weather forecast had promised me a cloud free night. It was past 2.am before the cloud cleared and I could get to work. Sadly, even in this remote location I could not avoid light pollution, Poole is glowing on horizon, but I think the picture was worth the sleepless night.