Lead me to the Stars…

If you keep on looking up, it’ll always be bright.

There are going to be high points from the year, but there are also always going to be low points. I guess during these times, it’s your attitude that matters. I’ve had the most amazing couple of weeks in Perth since I arrived – met some of the coolest people, seen glorious sights and generally had the most exciting time. But then, at the beginning of August, I travelled back home to the UK as my father passed away. I’ve been back in Perth a few days now, year abroad life here is back to normal, and I’m ready to make the most of each day. To my friends who have been so wonderful these few weeks, I cannot thank you enough.

This post is going to be a little background on the photo, so I hope I don’t bore you! What you see above is an image comprised of 30 separate photographs stitched together, creating a 200 megapixel, 250MB raw image. I took this photo on my first day in Perth, while we were staying in Scarborough. It may seem quite sad, but one of the things I was most looking forward to when coming to Western Australia was the lack of light pollution and the photo opportunities it brings (don’t laugh!). WA is 50 times the size of England, but the population is 20 times less, so the amount of stars you can see is incomparable. If you’re interested, google ‘dark sky map’ and have a look at the difference.

There were so many other conditions that were just perfect to allow me to take this photograph. We arrived in Perth when there was a new moon – any amount of moon would give brightness to the sky, reducing the brightness of the stars. There were also no clouds, another extremely lucky occurance – clouds would obviously block out the stars. The milky way has seasons too – it is not visible throughout the year, caused by the rotation of the earth and the earth’s movement in the solar system, and for it to arch over the ocean on the west coast, with the galactic centre of the milky way right in the middle, is very rare.

This photo is quite special to me, for what it represents after everything (good and bad) that has happened since I started my year abroad. Whether you think spiritually about the image or just think it was very lucky conditions that led to it being taken, I hope you just enjoy it.

I made a decision before starting my year abroad that I was going to be honest and open in this blog. One of the reasons I’ve stuck to it, is that I want to let anyone know who is on a year abroad and facing difficulties, the support you will receive from uni, work, friends and family is incredible, but if you need to get in contact with me for advice or anything, please do.