In a Folly: Harry Ricardo's image of Folly Arch in Brookmans Park, which shows around 40 minutes of the stars' movement

HAVE you ever noticed how much the stars move on an average night?

Harry Ricardo, who took the photo - In a Folly

This picture, which combines 40 photos, gives you a rough idea – and it only shows just over half-an-hour’s worth.

The image was captured by Brookmans Park resident Harry Ricardo who, after taking a series of photographs, used a bit of technology to combine them all into one still-shot.

The keen amateur photographer headed down to Folly Arch – which marked the southern entrance to the former Gobions estate, near Little Heath – with his Fuji SLR camera for the snap.

The Grade II-listed arch, which was erected in 1740 to commemorate Gobions’ connection with Elizabeth I (the estate was given to her in 1550 by Edward VI but returned to the More family by Mary Tudor in 1553), proved to be the perfect setting for the picture.

And once Harry had spent long enough in the bitter cold, he went home and used a programme called Star Stax to compound all of his pictures into one.

The technical video engineer said: “I went out at 11pm to try and experiment and see what I could get.

“It’s nice to try something a little bit different to your normal image and I’ve tried doing this kind of thing a few times before, but this is the best result yet.

“I’ve always had an interest in technology and I took up an interest in photography while at Portsmouth uni, thanks to a friend who inspired me and I am still in contact with; so it’s really nice when you can combine the two and come up with something like this.”