River of Stars

Our pale blue dot, as the late astronomer Carl Sagan described the Earth, lies in a spiral arm far from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Looking towards its bulging center, our reward is the thrilling sight of countless stars tightly clustered together forming a hazy band across the sky.

During the winter months, the Earth is pointing away from the galactic center at night, and you can only see the fainter arms of the Milky Way. Photographs aren’t as dramatic as they are at other times of the year.

In the spring, the bright galactic center becomes visible again. In March, it rises shortly before dawn in the Northern Hemisphere. It continues to rise earlier every day, and by June, it rises beginning at sunset.

An August image with the galactic center on the horizon and the arms reaching above.

The Milky Way extends far beyond what the camera typically sees, even with a wide-angle lens. It creates a striking vertical or horizontal hazy arch of stars crossing the night sky from horizon to horizon.

For photographers, the best months to photograph a Milky Way arch are March through August in the Northern Hemisphere. No single image can capture this sight. It requires multiple images stitched together in software to create a panorama.

The Shot

In June, I traveled to Utah for Milky Way night photography. My goal was to photograph my first arch.

If you’re wondering, the green glow in the sky is not the Northern Lights. It’s a phenomenon called airglow. Ionized atoms recombining, cosmic rays striking the upper atmosphere, and oxygen and nitrogen reacting with hydroxyl free radicals over a hundred miles above the Earth create a faint glow visible to a camera.

Mobile phone apps can provide previews of the night sky. It’s now possible to scout during the day to previsualize where the Milky Way center rises, the height of the arch above the horizon, and where the wispy arm part sets during the night. Armed with that knowledge, it’s a matter of finding a worthy foreground to complement the glorious arch above.

It required nine images to create the foreground panorama and eighteen images to create the Milky Way arch panorama. In addition to my usual Lightroom and Photoshop software, I used PTGui panorama software and Pixinsight astrophotography software. The learning curve for the latter two applications was intense, and I’ve just scratched the surface of their capabilities.

I used Photoshop to remove distracting elements on the ground but kept the other photographer and her tripod. Their presence adds scale and conveys the awe we shared while gazing at the river of stars in the truly dark skies of remote Utah.

Thanks for looking,

Chuck Derus Zenfolio | Chuck Derus