This fantastic photo was taken by the expedition photographer, James Walker.

Thanks, James, for permission to use it here. Do check out James’ website, there are some stunning images, but only after you’ve had a go at answering the questions below.

Which way are we looking in this picture?

Bonus: roughly what latitude was the photo taken at?

Good luck! I’ll post the answer here in a few days.

Photography tip from a pro: The tomb in the picture was not illuminated and James achieved this effect by keeping the shutter open whilst he climbed up to the tomb. Whilst there, he used a flash to illuminate the tomb, making sure that his body was always between the flash and the camera, to avoid any of the light from flash spilling directly into the lens.

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On a different subject, the first review of The Natural Explorer has come in:

“The Natural Explorer is an essential part of any outdoor/nature writing library and it works in several ways. It’s a cogent paean to the glories of nature, a subtle manifesto, a call to arms to get out and appreciate the wonders of the natural world. It’s also full of wonderful examples of how to better read, understand and connect with the landscape.”

Damian Hall, Country Walking magazine

Congratulations Sim on taking this fantastic photograph and allowing me to share it and thanks Mark for sending it my way.

To celebrate this great pic, I thought a little quiz would be fun. Or to be more precise, several shades of the same question…

To make this more interesting I’m going to give you the opportunity to test yourselves at the level you feel most comfortable with. Anyone who has been on my Beginner’s Guide to Natural Navigation course or read The Natural Navigator book, should be able to crack this at one level at least.

Depending on your level of confidence try one of the questions below, A is very difficult, B slightly easier etc. (Don’t read them all first though as there are clues in B, C and D which make it a little easier.)

A) Just by studying this photograph, can you work out which way we are looking in this photo and the latitude the picture was taken at?

B) The photograph was taken in the northern hemisphere. Can you work out which way we are looking in this photo and the latitude the picture was taken?

B) The photograph was taken on the east coast of Masirah Island, Oman, latitude 20 degrees north, what direction are we looking in the picture?

D) The picture was taken on the east coast of Masirah Island, Oman, latitude 20 degrees north. During the time lapse needed to take the photograph the stars rotated clockwise. What direction are we looking in the picture?

Answers by email or Twitter. No prizes other than honour and glory, of sorts

A big thank you to Sim and Mark, for respectively having taken this picture and sending it my way. It’s a cracker and deserves to win an award in my opinion. I’m not the sort of person to sit back and wait for other people to realise that an award should be given to someone, so I hereby award Sim with the inaugural The Natural Navigator Astronomical Photograph of the Year award 2011!

UPDATE:

Look away now if you don’t want the answer yet…

We are looking SSE. The south celestial pole is to just below the bottom right of the picture. The stars we are looking at are those between Achernar (bright streak on right) and the constellation Lepus (left of picture). Well done to all who got it.

If you want to see some pretty thorough workings, then this is not a bad place to find them:

http://thisteacherslife.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/seeing-stars/

Although standard practice in aerial navigation at the time, it is now remarkable to consider that the most powerful weapon in the history of warfare was guided using the stars. The Enola Gay dropped its atomic bomb payload on Hiroshima after an 1800 mile flight where the aircraft’s position was checked using the stars. From the Guardian article:

‘Van Kirk’s role was navigator: “We did things the old-fashioned way: celestial navigation, telling your position by the stars. We had a dome up top of the plane to sit up in and shoot the stars with a bubble sextant.”

The full article can be read in the Guardian Online.

Occasionally the tactic backfires. When the stories become deeply mythological it can take me closer to one aspect of my work. Last night the Lion King started to get a bit celestial…

Mufasa looked up at the starry sky and said, “The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars. So whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you… and so will I.”