Last weekend I went camping with some friends just outside Arrochar on Loch Long at Ardgarten campsite. Having never been to this particular site, and more a fan of wild camping, I was pleasantly surprised to find such a friendly, clean and well-equipped place.
On the beautiful crisp, clear evening that was our first night we set-up camp, un-corked a couple of bottles of beer and gazed in wonder at the Milky Way overhead! Jupiter was very bright in the South, the Plough guiding the way clearly to Polaris in the North.
We spotted the ISS (International Space Station) pass overhead, and several meteors flared-up in the blink of an eye in various locations across the night sky. Cassiopeia pointed out the Andromeda galaxy - the furthest object you can see with the naked eye at 2.4million light years away(!), and gracefully swooping open-winged across the sky was Cygnus the swan as the Summer Triangle clutched onto the last few weeks of its visibility as we approach the winter.
It's at moments like those that you wish you brought a proper camera and not an iPhone as I had, but the mental picture of that spectacular view of the universe will remain for a long time.
