For stargazers and astrophotographers within the northern hemisphere, summer season is the perfect time to look at and {photograph} our cosmic neighborhood, the Milky Way galaxy. The summer season months of June, July and August are synonymous with one of the magnificent sights within the evening sky, the good, dense core of the Milky Way.
While our house galaxy is a everlasting fixture within the heavens, the core is greatest photographed throughout this particular window. We will take a look at why the summer season months are the perfect for photographing the Milky Way, find out how to seize the proper shot and the essential gear you will want to seize this evening sky marvel.
Where are we in the Milky Way?
Best mirrorless digital camera for low gentle
Our greatest mirrorless digital camera for low gentle is the Sony A7 III. We gave it 4 and a half stars for its glorious excessive ISO efficiency, good autofocus and glorious dynamic vary.
To perceive why summer season is the ‘peak’ season for Milky Way images, we should first take a look at our location inside our personal galaxy. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with giant arms stretching out from the middle. Our solar system is located within one of its spiral arms, about two-thirds of the way out from the galactic center. As Earth orbits the Sun, our perspective of the galaxy changes throughout the year.
During the winter months, our vantage point during the night is such that we are looking outward towards the less-dense outer spiral arms nearer to the edge of the galaxy. This view presents a more diffuse and faint band of light, a very different view from the summer months. During nighttime in the summer months, Earth’s position in orbit allows us to look directly inward toward the dense and bright galactic core of the Milky Way. The galactic core is a rich region packed with billions of stars, nebulas and dust lanes. We tend to photograph the Milky Way during these months because the core is much brighter and more visually striking.
Why we photograph the Milky Way in summer
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The primary reason for focusing our cameras on the Milky Way in summer is the visibility of the galactic core. The core is the brightest and most prominent part of the galaxy, and its position high in the southern sky during summer nights makes it an ideal subject.
The concentration of stars and nebulas in the core means that you can capture more detail in your photo of the Milky Way. Astrophotographers often seek to capture this central region as it offers a sense of vast scale due to its brightness and complexity. Beyond a visible galactic core, another advantage of taking Milky Way shots in summer is the long warm nights that make long shoots under the stars much more comfortable than a frozen winter night.
The summer sky also offers other cosmic delights to complement a photograph of the Milky Way. The Summer Triangle—formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb—is a prominent asterism that lies along the Milky Way’s path. The Perseid meteor shower in mid-August also adds the chance of capturing a streaking meteor against the massive galactic core.
What gear do you need to photograph the Milky Way?
A camera with good low-light performance is a necessity for capturing the faint glow of the galactic core. We would recommend one of the best cameras for astrophotography such as the Sony A7R IV, which has a 61MP sensor and great high ISO noise handling. Another option could be the Sony A7C II, which we used to capture the photographs throughout this article. It only has a 33MP sensor but it is cheaper than the A7R IV and still did a great job of imaging the Milky Way.
A wide-angle lens with a fast aperture (f/2.8 or faster) is also crucial, as it allows you to gather as much light as possible in a short exposure time. It is also important to note that a wider focal length will allow you to capture more of the Milky Way as it stretches across a large portion of the sky. The best lenses for astrophotography often combine a fast aperture with a wide-angle focal length for capturing as much sky as possible.
A sturdy tripod is essential for keeping your camera still during the long exposures and interval shooting if you are planning on stacking frames later. If your camera and lens setup is quite heavy, make sure to check the payload capacity for your tripod in our best tripods guide.
With careful planning, the right equipment, and a deep appreciation for the cosmos, anyone can capture stunning photographs of the Milky Way. The summer months offer the best possible conditions to embark on this journey, giving us a front-row seat to the spectacular heart of our galaxy.
We used the Sony A7C II to take all the pictures we used on this function and we additionally gave it 4 stars in our full Sony A7C II overview. It’s nice for informal astro and plenty of different topics, however the proof is in our photographs of the Milky Way.
Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II lens
This is the lens we used for the pictures on this function. It is ideal for capturing a large expanse of the Milky Way and the quick f/2.8 aperture is ideal for letting within the glow of the galactic core. We additionally gave it 4 and a half stars in our full Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II lens review.
Benro Mach3 9X CF Series 3 tripod
The Benro Mach3 9X CF Series 3 tripod bought 4 and a half stars from us because of its simple setup at midnight and twisting locks, that are comfy to make use of even with chilly fingers. It also can assist bigger payloads so it’s excellent in case you have a heavy physique and lens mixture.
Best conditions for shooting the Milky Way
To successfully photograph the Milky Way, you will need to plan out your shoot first. There are certain conditions that make it easier to capture a great image of the galactic core of the Milky Way.
First and foremost, you need to find a location with minimal light pollution. City lights can easily wash out the faint glow of the galaxy. At least some level of dark sky will help you capture the Milky Way, while you don’t need the darkest skies ever to capture it, the darker the sky, the more visible the galactic core is. You can check for local dark skies near you on the light pollution map and Dark Site Finder.
You may even want a transparent sky freed from clouds so to see the evening sky, so make certain to verify a cloud cowl map like Ventusky or Accuweather for a greater likelihood of confirming clear skies.
And final however not least, you will want a moonless evening as the sunshine from a full or perhaps a crescent moon could be shiny sufficient to overpower the faint gentle of the Milky Way. Planning your shoots across the new moon offers you a very good few days every month to seize the faint glow of the core. Our new moon calendar has the dates for the following new moon and people for the remainder of the 12 months.
What digital camera settings to make use of to seize the Milky Way
- Wide aperture (e.g. f/2.8)
- Long shutter pace (e.g. 15 seconds)
- High ISO (ISO 1600 or above)
Best stargazing app for astrophotographers
We assume the perfect stargazing app for astrophotographers is PhotoPills, thanks to its simple design, location scouting features and useful augmented reality for finding and identifying celestial objects. We gave it four and a half stars and is the best app for astrophotography in our stargazing apps guide.
First, make sure your camera is in manual mode so that you can change each exposure setting. Use a relatively high ISO setting. We recommend starting at ISO 1600 and above, then, depending on your lens, set your aperture to the widest value. Then, either adjust your focus to infinity or your camera’s autofocus if it is powerful enough.
To get a sense of what shutter speed to shoot with, use the “500 rule,” where you divide 500 by your lens’s focal length to get the maximum shutter speed. For example, a 16mm lens on a full-frame camera would be just over 30 seconds. Use this as a loose guide, though, because we achieved good results with a 16mm lens and a shutter speed of 15 seconds.