Photograph the Milky Way

Image the misty glow of our home Galaxy as it crosses the sky during the summer months

The Milky Way represents the plane of our home Galaxy. Its diffuse glow is caused by the light of billions of stars too distant to be seen individually with the naked eye. As our Galaxy is shaped like two fried eggs back-to-back, and the Sun sits within the 'whites', two-thirds of the way from the centre, the mistiness appears like a path in the sky; the plane where all the stars are found.

The path isn't uniform, something very evident at this time of year from a dark sky site. From the UK, the Milky Way brightens as it passes south through the Northern Cross asterism. It's made more dramatic by a dark dust cloud blocking some of the Milky Way's light, known as the Cygnus Rift.

Dark swans

If your skies are good and dark, it's obvious that as the Milky Way passes out of the southern end of Cygnus, interesting things are happening. However, from the UK, its low altitude makes seeing this quite difficult. Passing down into Sagittarius, we reach the bright core of our Galaxy. Here atmospheric extinction reduces its appearance but a camera can help restore at least some of its impact.

As it flows south through Cygnus, one portion meanders towards the northeast corner of Ophiuchus where it comes to an end. The main thread passes down through Aquila and into Scutum where there's a bright feature, the Scutum Star Cloud. It then appears to widen, an effect caused by the core bulge. From locations further south where the core is able to climb high in the sky, it can be impressive, even casting blurry shadows under the right conditions.