I’m a retired engineering project manager living in the Algarve with a long list of hobbies. The longest lasting of all these is photography (since the 1950’s).
A more recent addition to this is photographing the night sky.
Southern Portugal is great for cloud free nights although it can be cold in winter at 3am. Heat haze in summer is also an issue. Light pollution is difficult to escape from in most places on this planet and here is no exception. The Algrave has a few darker areas but this means a long drive for me at silly times of the night, so most of my photos are taken in less than ideal conditions.
I photograph mostly from my garden which is far from ideal but, to be honest, getting up at 02:00am for a long drive to a dark spot is a bit of a mood killer. The local hilltops and beach is as far as I get.
April to August here are the best times to photograph the Milky Way, taking into account that moon free nights only occur every four weeks. I promise to do better this year.
There are dark sky sites in Portugal (Moura/Alqueva for example) which I plan to revisit but, especially with my dear wife Marie, other things always seem to take priority.
I am happy to be contacted by anyone with similar interests.
Martyn – email: martyn@145.pt