June Gives Northern Hemisphere Stargazers a 3-Hour Window for Milky Way Core Photos
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Jun 11
June Gives Northern Hemisphere Stargazers a 3-Hour Window for Milky Way Core Photos
3 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Jun 11
Summary
June brings one of the Northern Hemisphere’s best chances to photograph the Milky Way’s bright galactic core, which rises in the southeastern sky around 11:30 p.m. local time at midlatitudes.
That opportunity is narrow: true darkness opens roughly a three-hour window, and the best nights fall between the June 8 last-quarter moon and a few nights after the June 14 new moon.
Dark skies are critical because June’s low southern moon can wash out the same part of the sky; photographers can use light-pollution maps and the Summer Triangle—Vega, Deneb and Altair—to locate the band.
Manual camera settings around f/2.8, ISO 3200-6400 and 10-25 second exposures, plus a tripod, wide-angle lens and careful focus, give the best results.
July through September should make shooting easier as the galaxy shifts farther south and southwest, before the core drops back toward the horizon around October.