[Leica] Photographing the Milky Way

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Michiel is right. The Milky Way is a band of stars stretching across the
sky, visible only under extremely dark conditions. It is really the view
through our local galaxy toward its center.The Earth is in a sparsely
populated area about 2/3rds of the way towards the rim. Any sky light,
moonlight, or clouds will mask the image. We live about midway up the Hudson
Valley but the illumination of nearby cities about 50 miles distant is
enough to mask the Milky Way on most occasions. I have only seen it clearly
two times. The first was in the middle of the Arizona desert on an
absolutely moonless night in cloudless conditions. The second time was in a
sailboat 600 miles out to sea. The view was breathtaking both times. That's
why most astronomical observatories are built in remote locations.


On a practical note, if you are in the right location and you want your
camera to image individual stars rather than a smudge of light, you will
need to have your camera on an equatorial mount that compensates for the
rotation of the Earth. Exposures will be long. Any foreground object, trees,
houses, etc. must be unmoving.


Larry Z (a former astrophysics major)

-- - - - - - -

It needs to be very dark to see the milky way. And a rural area is not

dark enough. if it is dark enough you'll see the milky way. No map or

direction needed for that.



Cheers,


Michiel Fokkema


On 22-6-2011 18:33, Peter Cheyne wrote:

I live in a rural area, and would like to have a go at photographing

the Milky Way with an interesting foreground subject (not decided what

yet).  Can anyone suggest a website so I can see when the Milky Way is

visible from where I am.  I mean a site where you can input your

location.  Failing that is there any cheap or free software that does

this for the Mac?


Thanks,


Peter