AstroBrandX is the website and blog for Les’ adventures in astrospace

Les Brand FRAS is an astronomer, astrophotographer and STEM Ambassador providing astronomy-related education and outreach to all ages.

He operates from his back garden observatory based on the edges of east of London, trying to combat the effects of light pollution and UK weather.

Les provides tailored and general illustrated talks on a wide range of astronomy and astrophotography topics. He gives talks to astro societies, schools and youth groups. He is also an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich delivering planetarium shows as well as teaching online courses in astronomy and astrophotography

Latest Posts

Milky Way

Summer is great for photographing the Milky Way. Here’s a part of the Milky Way in the region of Cygnus (the Swan). The brighter star left of middle is Deneb, the tail of Cygnus. There’s a lot of hydrogen gas in this region which is glowing red where stars have formed and the radiation from them is making the gas glow. The region to the left is known as the North America Nebula – maybe you can see why? The brighter area to the right is mainly due to the sheer number of stars which gives the Milky Way its name but there is also some darker areas caused by dust in our galaxy blocking some of the light from the stars.