Don't panic, nothing bad here - just fancied sharing a trip out from the other night.
A buddy and I went to a nearby national park/forest here in the UK (Cannock Chase, Staffordshire), specifically to photograph the night sky and maybe catch a late meteor.
We arrived about 21:30, parked my 4x4 at the side of the road and walked all of 50 yards to place known locally as "Glacier Boulder" where we set up.
There was a surprising amount of traffic about on the country road and each time a car stopped, I kept an eye open (just in case). At one point, a car pulled up alongside mine, blocking it from my view - I decided to walk over to them. My head torch caught the distinctive yellow and blue (battenberg) pattern on the side of the car - it was the Police.
After their casual questioning and my explanation, I was informed that my buddy and I were spotted walking away from my car with rucksacks and what looked like rifles in bags over our shoulders (there has been incidents of illegal poaching of deer on the reserve) - that would be my tripod bag then.
After a quick look in the boot of my car (I guess for hunting paraphanalia), recording our names and addresses, they left us to our stargazing.
Later that evening (ok, very early in the morning) we saw another slow Police drive-by and later on their return they too stopped - another, less formal, chat this time and we were again left to our stargazing.
This might of been an inconvenience, but I'm pleased that the public in the area are vigilant in reporting potential poaching. Staffordshire Police too were very civil and I appreciated they were just doing their job.
This is one photography session I'm not going to forget in a long time 
Lawrence
