A keen stargazer from Hemel Hempstead who built an observatory in his back garden during lockdown, has shared some of the images he has captured.
Richard Blackshaw has been stargazing for years and gets some fantastic pictures with his telescope.
During lockdown he decided to build something permanent to get the best use of his telescope.
He said: "I have always been into stargazing, ever since I was a child, I find it all really interesting.
"My wife bought me a telescope, and it was just a basic one, so after a while we bought a better one and now we have a really good one, it's amazing what you can see and what it can do.
"We are both really fascinated by space, even more so now that we have this and can see so much more of what's out there.
"I have seen nebulae, galaxies and planets. Seeing Saturn was unbelievably great, a fantastic sight, and Jupiter with all the moons was pretty special too.
"Sometimes they do look like smudges but the photos can make them look clearer."
Richard has also been sharing some of the images he has captured on his Facebook page.
His wife Lisa said: "The images of space he gets are quite amazing, it would be nice to share these.
"It is very clever what he has done, he has always been into star gazing and he used to take his telescope out and look at the star
"But now he has a created a secure place to keep it.
"It looks like a shed but the roof slides off, it is a little room with heating and he can go out there and look up at the stars.
"I've been out there as well and it is brilliant, the pictures are great, it's not just stars you can see.
"I've shown the pictures to some people at work and people are really interested in it at the moment."
During lockdown he decided to build something permanent to get the best use of his telescope.
