X marks the spot!

James, the setup was as follows:-

Meade LXD75 mount, Minolta Dynax 5D camera directly mounted with 50mm f1.7 lens - exposure 30secs f2.5 ISO 1600, RAW image processed with Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 with ACR4.1.

That's similar to my set-up. I need more practice.

One in a million shot there Paul. Lucky you. Well done.

Lovely shot Paul. The satellites certainly add to the impression of a dynamic sky to the image.

Just wondering,

Any idea whats going on at bottom left? Some really funky looking stars doen there, optical aberration?

Still doesn't take from a nice shot.

Well spotted Dave - the image is cropped a bit from the full frame but the bottom left really is a corner and there's some quite visible spherical aberration (coma) going on there as the lens is just a bit down fom wide open.

Very good Paul isn't it funny when you think about it. the amount of lost exposures lost dew to satelites.

Very good Paul isn't it funny when you think about it. the amount of lost exposures lost dew to satelites.

One thing that bugs me about getting into astrophotography, especially in Winter when so many more satellites are seen.

Nice shot there Paul, quite a dramatic scene!