My Shetland Solar journey

Welcome

This is my first blog on seeing the sun in Shetland 😄 well you can laugh, its a very rare sight. I want to take you with me on a journey to understand and photograph the sun in a few different ways

                                                               Sun and cloud at Quendale

For many, Shetland is possibly one of the worst places to see the sun. While many of you bask in sunshine, Shetland is often raining, covered by cloud or fog and has gale force winds

The lack of sun is the biggest concern, looking at the various statistics the average sunshine during 2016 (Last published figs)

Shetland   1210    Hours

Glasgow   1183    Hours

England    1486    Hours

not unexpected, but not the full story these figure will be reduced again taking into account the west/ east split in Shetland, we live on the east which is less sunny than the west. Also the optimum time to view the sun is between 10- 14hrs. 

 Sunrise

Sunset

So it will be more challenging photographing the sun in Shetland than down in England. One good thing is that in Shetland the atmosphere is less polluted and the quality of light is excellent. 

You will need a real passion for Solar photography and make the most of any opportunity, luckily I am retiring at the end of this month so will have more flexibility. Its best to take the cost into account especially if you want to get into Ha Solar photography, more of this later.

These link in well with my other passion, Aurora photography, each Aurora is very special and a privilege to see 

Join me on facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter

and shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk