Capturing the Milky Way: Personal Moments in Astrophotography

Ooolala, Milky Way!

The Milky Way’s galactic core is now visible in the Northern Hemisphere and rises in the early hours before dawn. Tis the season of galactic splendor in which my psyche oscillates between euphoria and frustration. Perfect “seeing” conditions are rare in New England. Correct forecasts are even rarer. Those of you who live in New England know of which I speak.

I’ve always been a photographer who aimed to have an interesting foreground in my astrolandscapes—a bend of seagrass, a lighthouse, a beach or lake, something. Sometimes I am successful in finding just the right foreground that adds visual interest. Other times I’d settle with a wimpy foreground as the sky is the main attraction. On every image, I wallow in the colors of our galaxy and ponder on the atmospheric conditions of the night that produced such a sky. Sometimes, the Milky Way can blaze with starlight against a dark velvet canvas; other times, the stars are more muted with a hazy backdrop. Either way, it is forever a delight.

📷 – Nikon Z9 | 🔘 – Nikkor 14-24 mm | 🎞 – ISO 5000 | 🔘 – f/2.8 | 🕒 – 6 second⁠s (stacked)

Below is one of my shots from a cold March night, captured around 3 AM. It was one of the first captures of the Milky Way season one year, and I didn’t have my favorite starry landscape lens with me, the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 G, but I had another wide-angle lens, which is sharp and fast but suffers from coma aberration. I kicked myself for not taking my favorite beast with me. I believed the forecast that called for rainy days and cloudy nights during my mini getaway on Cape Cod. I took my Nikkor 17-35 mm f/2.8 D instead as it takes a 77 mm filter, and I planned to shoot daytime long exposures and landscapes, not astrolandscapes.

Well, the forecast was once again wrong, this time in my favor, with the night skies crystal clear and oh, so incredibly dark. It was very cold as well; frozen puddles were reflecting starlight. The conditions were perfect. The cold, still air made the starlight more intense, the many pink nebulae very pronounced, and the Dark Horse Nebula and dust lanes appeared to intensify the orange and brown gasses of the galactic core.

Out of the thousands of Milky Way shots I’ve ever taken, this one with all its coma aberrations is most dear to me. The foreground features my car, which transports me on my many adventures, tiny and glowing beneath the magnificence of the stars. This is the only image I have captured of the Milky Way that includes a personal element.

Sometimes, the lack of an iconic foreground or perfect lens can result in a capture that truly inspires your soul.

For me, this image encapsulates the saying, shoot with the camera (or lens in this case) you have. However, this adventure was a lesson learned. I never leave behind my starry landscape lens, ever.

Clear skies.

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