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It’s possible to see the Milky Way from a light-polluted city, but it is very faint, and difficult to photograph. To photograph it in its full glory, I also need to travel to a dark sky location during the new moon phase.
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This region of the Milky Way is quite beautiful in its own, unique way.įrom my latitude in the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way core is only observable between the months of April to September.
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The photo below shows the Cygnus region of the Milky Way along with many other northern constellations such as Cepheus. However, the plane of the Milky Way stretches across the sky into northern constellations as well. Southern Hemisphere.Īs you can see, the farther north your latitude is, the less Milky Way core you will be able to see. The Milky Way core from the Northern Hemisphere vs. Don’t believe me? Look at the position of the Milky Way core in July from my location in Canada vs. Observers living in the southern hemisphere have the luxury of seeing this bright core high above their heads in the night sky.
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Usually, when people talk about photographing the Milky Way, they are referring to the dense core of the galaxy towards the constellation Sagittarius. From our vantage point on Earth, we see it as a noticeable band of light stretching across the night sky. The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. By combining multiple images together (stacking), you can create images of the Milky Way with an even stronger signal (the amount of light collected) and reduced noise. Like all experiences in astrophotography, subtle changes to your camera settings and approach can make a big difference.Ī good starting point is to take 30-second exposures at ISO 1600, using an f-stop of F/2.8. These are not hard and fast rules, of course. This will reveal more of the structure and color of the Milky Way galaxy in a single image. To photograph the Milky Way with a DSLR camera effectively, you need to take long-exposure images using a moderately high ISO setting, and the maximum aperture of your lens.
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