A NATURE photographer from Newport has taken his hobby one step beyond – capturing this incredible image of a planet 900 million miles away.
Nick Edwards, 33, from Newport, shared the amazing capture of Saturn, complete with its iconic ring, to the South Wales Argus Camera Club.
He has also shared these breathtaking shots of Earth's sister planet, Venus, and the south side of the Moon.
And he did all this with a telescope from Argos.
“The thing that inspired my interest in space was when SpaceX launched their first manned Dragon capsule and I could see it from my garden," said Mr Edwards. "It was mind-blowing!”
The father-of-one, who works in research and development at the Royal Gwent Hospital, says he bought the telescope from Argos in 2020.
“My set-up is quite primitive,” he said. “First, I have to find what I’m looking for, and I’ve got quite good at that. I know what it is without looking through the telescope these days.”
Mr Edwards inserts the eyepiece camera into the telescope and controls it from his laptop, balancing the settings so he can capture as much detail as possible.
“To the naked eye, these things seem static, but you can really see them moving across the telescope,” he said.
“When it’s done well, it blows people away. But it takes a lot of time and persistence. They are still nowhere near what I want them to be!
“I have captured the Milky Way in Ceredigion. When you come to an urban area, the difference is shocking. You can see so much more in rural areas, where there is less light pollution, but the biggest challenge in Wales is the weather!”
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