In Lowland Scots English, the “gloaming” is the time after sunset (or before sunrise) when the sky is light.

The Milky Way rises out of the light pollution from the series of villages strung out along the Moray Firth coast towards Burghead in Moray, North-East Scotland. Avoiding light pollution is impossible in this area so you just have to make the best of it! The fuzzy feature middle-left is our nearest galactic neighbour Andromeda.

Cloud moves in over the Moray Firth to obscure the Milky Way at Covesea near Lossiemouth, Moray, North-East Scotland.

Above the Skur pool in a meander in the River Findhorn in Moray.

A rock formation on the beach at Covesea on the Moray Firth coast backlit by the lights on the Poseidon Maritime patrol aircraft flightline at RAF Lossiemouth. Thanks to these lights (which must be visible from Mars!) the life of a night photographer has got much more difficult due to the ever present light polluting glow! However, when life gives you lemons.

Above the River Divie in Moray, North East Scotland.

South to the Mamore hills, taken from about a third of the way up Ben Nevis; Ssotland and Britain’s highest peak, on a night when I intended to do some light painting on the sloping terraces above Glen Nevis but which I had to abandon when my torch died! Fortunately there was another option, but it was fleeting. You can see the cloud coming in to the right, cloud which reflected the light pollution from nearby Fort William just enough to show the foreground..

What an amazing thing to see if this was how it looked to the naked eye! By the Moray Firth in North-East Scotland.

Orion - “The Hunter” - rising from the cover of a tree near Dallas, Moray in the north-east of Scotland. 

This tree is probably too young for any of my ancestors to have actually passed by it, and the sky, unfortunately, only looks like this to the camera, but then again it is only a dream! This is at Aulthuish, between Dallas (the original one) and Knockandhu where many of my ancestors came from after moving there from the west following the last Jacobite Rising of 1745 . 

The ruins of Duffus Castle beneath the Milky Way. Near Lossiemouth, Moray, North-East Scotland.

So called because the glow you can see top right is from the Posedon maritime patrol aircraft flightline at Royal Air Force Lossiemouth. The red glow is actually a rarer red aurora. It took a bit of doing to pull the detail of the Milky Way out of that glow!!

Looking through the same sea stack as seen in “Star Stack” above, but later in the night when the Milky Way had moved through the sky, or rather we had moved. More green aurora is visible in this one. Covesea near Lossiemouth, Moray.

The ruins of Duffus Castle, Moray, Scotland. On a very different kind of night to the previous image.

So called because the glow you can see top right is from the Posedon maritime patrol aircraft flightline at Royal Air Force Lossiemouth. The red glow is actually a rarer red aurora. It took a bit of doing to pull the detail of the Milky Way out of that glow!!

North to a red aurora and Milky Way across the Moray Firth from Clashach Cove near Hopeman in Moray, North-East Scotland. .The object middle upper left is not a pulsar but the effect of misting on the lens and is actually Procyon, the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Minor and usually the eighth-brightest star in the night sky.  Ten o’clock from Procyon, the bright object is Mars. 

Looking south over Lochindorb and to beyond the ruin of Lochindorb Castle, which can be seen on an island in the loch in the middle distance, towards the Milky Way as it rises from underlit clouds that are coloured by light-pollution from Aviemore. Highland Region, Scotland.

Close to Lochindorb on Dava moor, the Milky Way (Via Lactea) arcs out of cloud underlit by the lights of Grantown-on-Spey and Dulnain Bridge in the North East Highlands of Scotland..

The Milky Way rising through a predominently red aurora by a sea stack at Covesea near Lossiemouth in Moray, North-East Scotland.

There is a lot of light pollution in this image but much of it is the Aurora Borealis which is usually green, or at least it is to a camera (see my Blog post on that subject here) but occasionally you do get red or magenta making a show.

The Milky Way over much younger but still ancient rocks at Covesea in Moray, North-East Scotland.

The Milky Way over the Moray Firth.

The Milky Way from the rocks at Covesea,. Moray, Scotland.

Autumn by the River Findhorn in Moray, North-East Scotland. Because of light pollution from the nearby town of Forres, the Milky Way has to take equal billing on this one.

At Covesea, Moray, North-East Scotland.

By the Moray Firth.

Over the Moray Firth. North East Scotland.

The Milky Way over the Moray Firth from Covesea near Lossiemouth in the North-East of Scotland.

The Milky Way, aurora and the lights of the villages that stretch along the southern Moray Firth coast west of Lossiemouth, Moray.

An outbuilding of the ruined Whitetree farm near Elgin in Moray.

If you were to have an accident here they would probably never find you. Bit it only seems remote and wild. The glow above the trees is light pollution from nearby town of Lossiemouth where I live in the county of Moray.