The Milky Way. Our Galaxy.
The galactic core of the Milky Way is a magnificent sight to behold.
So many stars and nebulae across the night rainbow of the Milky Way, and the bright center of it all, the core. Certainly an astounding spectacle in the night sky. It graces my area of the Northern Hemisphere from Spring until Fall, and it’s the main point of interest in most of my nightscape photography. My gateway to the stars.
Image Name: Hobbit Holes and Cosmos. "It's a dangerous business, going out your door." -Bilbo Baggins I knew the first time I saw these hobbit houses on a hill on the side of the road I wanted to make this image. I also knew it would have to be a composite. They were on the wrong side of the road for the Milky Way. So I took the foreground picture, and then used a Milky Way image from April 2022 from an area with similar light pollution, and made my dream reality. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE STORY!
Image Name: The Way to the Stars is Pearl's Fen. A boardwalk wetland area full of flowers in the summer. The August Milky Way lines up brilliantly with the boardwalk. I captured the foreground image at blue hour, just after sunset, so there is still light to show detail in the landscape. Put it together with a sky from a clear dark night at JGAP, and you have a nightscape image full of peace, wonder, and magic. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE STORY!
Image Name: The Kelpies and the Dark Horse. Beware! In Falkirk, Scotland The Kelpies pop their giant heads out of the water. We didn't find Nessie, but we walked to the statue of the kelpies. Our trip was in July, however, so it doesn't get full dark, and we didn't even see the kelpies lit up. As such, this kelpie image was always going to be a composite with a Milky Way sky from a dark place. The Dark Horse Nebula between The Kelpies is amazing to me, and this is how it really lined up when we were there, we just couldn't see the stars. We did manage to see some stars in the highlands, and I was able to get a very blue sky Milky Way over Ben Cruachan. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE STORY!
Image Name: Ben Curachan Under the Milky Way. The mountains are the closest we can get to the stars while standing on solid ground. Ben Curachan is the tallest mountain in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Without full dark ever visiting this area of the world in the month of July, a rare clear night still graced the blue night sky with the stars of the Milky Way. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE STORY!
Image Name: Moonrise Star Reflection. A local quarry park has a landscape not often seen in my area. Several ponds, which can come and go with the rains, are surrounded by almost barren rocky ground. Forest like trees and cliff walls encircle the entire place. It is a beautiful park and I am lucky to get to photograph there at night so often. Here the moon is rising, with it’s atmospheric orange glow and beginning to take over the starlit sky. However, the stars are still strong enough to reflect in the pond and shine in the sky up above. “The moon is the first milestone on the road to the stars.” -Arthur C Clarke. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE STORY!
Image Name: Rust and Stardust. The Midwest is known for farmlands. Not always glamorous, but necessary for our health and survival. An old manure spreader displayed at an open air horse/dog/glider park highlights this perfectly, while looking almost magical under the starlight shine of the Milky Way above. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE STORY!
Image Name: Lights of Love under the Milky Way. On my drive to JGAP ( John Glenn Astronomy Park) in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio, I always admire these sparkling colorful lights in a certain cemetery on the small country highway. They are like stars covering the ground, shining spots of light sprinkled all around. Curious enough to research what they are, I learned they are solar lights people leave at the gravestones of loved ones; they are called Lights of Love. A beautiful sentiment, with a shining mirror of stars above in the darkness of night.
Image Name: Strong as the Wind. There is a certain strength represented in this image, I believe. Wind Turbines are so giant, like sentinels watching over the land. On this night, in the moonless dark, my friend and I had a particularly hard time determining if this turbine had actually stopped moving after making us jump out of our skin by starting up randomly. The answer was no, it takes a very long time after the noises stop for the blades to completely halt.
“The deeper you wander, the more you see.”
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