London – Searching for perfect photos of the Milky Way challenges amateurs and professionals from all over the world, requiring complex equipment, technique and a lot of willingness to spend hours reaching remote locations and waiting for the right moment.
Travel and photography website Capture The Atlas annually selects the best works in the so-called field of astrophotography dedicated to the Milky Way. There are so many impressive entries that the site chooses not one, but several photos of the year.
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This year’s list includes photos taken by 25 photographers from 14 nationalities in 12 countries including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Egypt, France, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Japan and China.
May is the perfect season for Milky Way photography
Capture the Atlas, a travel blog dedicated to promoting astrophotography, is led by photographer Dan Zafra, who is responsible for curating selected images.
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Zafra is looking not only for photos taken by famous photographers, but also for new talent and places it hasn’t been photographed before, such as Tibet and Xinjiang images in this year’s issue of the Milky Way.
The perfect season to appreciate the Milky Way is February to October in the Northern Hemisphere and January to November in the Southern Hemisphere. The best time to view and photograph the Milky Way is usually between May and June, with the Milky Way’s maximum visibility times in both hemispheres.
Desert, perfect setting for Milky Way photos
Besides the weather, another requirement to see the Milky Way is a dark sky and free from light pollution. “It’s always recommended to stay away from lightly polluted areas like cities and visit higher altitude areas,” says Zafra.
Deserts with no artificial lights and a dry climate are among the favorite places for those devoted to recording the Milky Way.
Sentinel – by Andy Jones – Utah, USA
Photo: Andy Jones, Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“Utah is known for its unique desert landscapes, and nature has its own perspective. This sandstone pillar pulled mine. A large red structure that rises from the ground and looks out over the valley like a sentinel. He resisted Mother Nature and fought Father Time. And it still stands.
The region is visited for various reasons. Went to see the night sky and red rocks. The stars were bright and motionless. The sounds and crackling of a small fire from the nearby camp could be heard, but not loud. All components for an unforgettable moment.
While photographing this panorama, I couldn’t help wondering: How many nights like this has this sandstone sentry witnessed?
Milky Way Lightning – by Jinyi He, Xinjiang, China
Photograph: Jinyi He, Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“This photo was taken in the ‘no-one’s land’ Dahaidao Desert in Xinjiang. Often due to strong winds, the area gradually eroded into discrete hills that took on unique shapes.”
Egyptian Nights – Burak Esenbey, White Desert, Egypt
Photograph: Burak Esenbey/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“From Cairo, we drove about five hours west to our base camp. The desert in Egypt is divided into the White and Black Desert.As the name suggests, the Black Desert has dark soils and broad hills, while the White Desert is less rugged and consists mostly of fine, clear Saharan sand.
Due to sandstorms, many of these rock formations have a unique shape that offers a wide variety of compositions.”
Salt Road – Alexis Trigo, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Photograph: Alexis Trigo/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“When you visit the Atacama Desert with its drought and starry skies, you feel like you are on another planet. The photographed location is a thousand-year-old salt mountain range in an unbreakable silence, ideal for introspection and sky gazing.
One of my favorite features of this place is the large layer of salt on the ground that reflects and amplifies the scarce light that comes mostly from the zodiacal light and translates into less impact on photography.
Starlit Peak – by Spencer Welling, Utah, USA
Photo: Spencer Welling/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“The land of Utah is full of stunning landforms hidden in rarely seen corners of the desert. This needle-like formation is one such location, nestled beneath a series of blue shale cliffs in the Hanksville Badlands.
The night sky above this region offers some of the darkest and brightest stellar views in the entire Southwest. On clear, moonless nights, the stars shine brightly enough to cast noticeable shadows on the ground, as they do when below the summit tonight.
The Milky Way curved over the Pinnacles Desert – Trevor Dobson, Nambung National Park, Australia
Photograph: Daniel Zafra Portill/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“This is a 180-degree panorama of the Milky Way in the Pinnacles Desert, two hours north of Perth. The Pinnacles are a great place for astrophotography.
The area is teeming with thousands of these limestone monoliths, providing almost endless compositional possibilities. That’s one of the reasons I keep coming here every year.”
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Lavender House – Benjamin Barakat, Valensole, France
Photograph: Benjamin Barakat/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“I caught this image of the Milky Way in Valensole, France, in the summer. The smell and atmosphere of these lavender fields is real. Staying there in the middle of the nighta moment of happiness, especially since the bees are sleeping and you don’t risk stinging!
Nothing beats a warm summer night with a beautiful night sky view from this iconic lonely house in the middle of a lavender plateau.”
Confidential – by Marcin Zajac, California, USA
Photograph: Marcin Zajac/Milky Way Photographer of the Year.
“These drawings were carved into a large volcanic stone thousands of years ago by Native Americans living in this part of eastern California. They shattered the dark surface of the rock, revealing the lighter underlying layer.
What is unusual about the scene is that it looks skyward, allowing for some interesting compositions that include the California Sierra Nevada mountains and the night sky in the same image.”
The Milky Way Belt in early spring – per Egor Goryachev, La Palma, Canary Islands – Spain
Photograph: Photographer of the Year Egor Goryachev/ Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“In the spring, the Milky Way’s core begins to appear in the southeastern part of the morning sky, allowing the entire arc to be photographed from north to south at an angle of about 180 degrees.
I chose Pico de la Cruz, one of the peaks of La Palma island, to spend the night photographing our galaxy. At around 4 p.m., the Milky Way was high enough in the sky and I could catch an arc shape without any distortion from the surrounding stars.”
Galactic Kiwi – Evan McKay, Mount Taranaki, New Zealand
Photo: Evan McKay Galactic Kiwi – Mount Taranaki, New Zealand / Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“I had taken pictures at this location before but felt I could do better. So I came back to try again. I was very surprised to see the sky clear in the morning and it started shooting from that spot. There were even meteors flying around and I was able to catch some.”
The Milky Way over Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi – by Takemochi Yuki, Yamanashi, Japan
Photograph: Takemochi Yuki/ Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“The place where the photo was taken is called Fujiyama Twin Terrace. You can get there by climbing for about an hour. I took this image at around 3 am on April 9, 2022.
In the spring, Mt. This is the only time you can take a picture of the nightscape with Fuji and the Milky Way at the same time. In winter, it is difficult to get there as the road is covered with snow. When the weather warms up in summer, the Milky Way rises to the west and affect from above.“
Photograph: Uroš Fink/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“I love nature and being quiet under the starry sky. It’s where I feel free, but it’s also very small. The interesting thing about photographing the night sky is that you never know what to expect. There are surprises all over the sky.
At first the weather was great, but as the night progressed, high clouds appeared, which unfortunately obscured what was happening in the sky. What fascinated me while I was photographing was that the Mangart Saddle (mountain range) tonight was filled with light from all directions.”
Winter sky over the mountains – Tomás Slovinsly, Low Tatras, Slovakia
Photograph: Tomás Slovinsly / Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“Although the view of the Milky Way is dimmer in winter than in summer, it’s still full of beautiful features that deserve attention.
This part of the galaxy contains many bright stars. The galactic arms are filled with hydrogen-alpha nebulae: objects almost always invisible to the naked eye, but fully visible with an astromodified camera. The arc pictured stretches above the Low Tatras Mountains in Slovakia, where temperatures dropped below -14C that night.”
The road to the past – Jose Manuel Galvan Rangel, Extremadura, Spain
Photograph: Jose Manuel Galvan Rangel/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“A natural paradise – that’s the best way to describe the Spanish region where the picture was taken. The flora and fauna of this little-known region are magnificent, as is the night sky, free from the pollution and lights of the big cities, with millions of stars illuminated as night falls.
I took this photo of the Milky Way in a remote town to the southwest of this community called Salvatierra de los Barros.
Ice Age – by Alvin Wu, Tibet, China
Photo: Alvin Wu/Milky Way Photographer of the Year
“This is the Chinese version of Pumoungcuo, a 5,070-metre-high blue ice lake. This lake in Tibet freezes every winter. At night, with temperatures as low as -20C, you can hear the sound of the ice cracking while capturing the season’s most beautiful sky.
The blue ice surface and the dazzling Orion constellation make for a fantastic sight.”
Planning is essential for anyone interested in photographing the Milky Way. Catch Atlas offers free calendars It helps you discover the best days and times to save the galaxy based on your location.
Photos courtesy of Capture The Atlas / not reproduced
