Milky Way over Central Florida

Early morning stargazing from Central Florida and Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area. There's a lot of light pollution from points to the east, the Melbourne and Space Coast, but the Milky Way arc was quite visible. Also in frame is Jupiter, Saturn, and low on the horizon is Neptune. This is an 8-frame horizontal panorama combined in Lightroom. All frames are shot at ISO4000, f.18, and 10-seconds with a Canon R5 and Sigma 14mm lens.

Milky Way over Central Florida

Early morning stargazing from Central Florida and Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area. There's a lot of light pollution from points to the east, the Melbourne and Space Coast, but the Milky Way arc was quite visible. Also in frame is Jupiter, Saturn, and low on the horizon is Neptune. This is an 8-frame horizontal panorama combined in Lightroom. All frames are shot at ISO4000, f.18, and 10-seconds with a Canon R5 and Sigma 14mm lens.

Milky Way over Central Florida

I set the alarm for 1:30 am Friday for my first Milky Way (only) outing since mid-2020; I say "only" because I've combined rockets with the Milky Way this year. I guess I wasn't quite prepared for the view because when I stepped out of the car and looked up, I reflexively said "oh my" out loud as the cloud of the Milky Way was obviously and stunningly overhead, easily visible to the naked eye. Also present were Jupiter (bright, frame left), Saturn (up a bit and to the right of Jupiter), and Neptune is low on the horizon and to the left, but the lights from the coast are too bright on the horizon. The forecast called for some clouds, but they stayed mainly to the west of me, and the bugs were oddly not a nuisance. It was a brief but terrific outing: I shot for maybe 30-minutes and was back home and in bed by 3:30 am. Details: 4-frame panorama, cropped to a 4x3 frame shot at ISO4000, f1.8, and 10-secs with a Canon R5 & Sigma 14mm lens. I made minimal adjustments to the image, in particular, to the cloud -- it was just about the most prominent I've seen it from Central Florida.

Milky Way over Central Florida

"Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet." (Stephen Hawking) Of late, it's been too cloudy to stargaze, but last (Sunday) night, skies were clear over Central FL. This was the view from Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area in Osceola County. Details: Panorama of many 14mm frames all shot at 10-secs, f1.8 & ISO3200 with a Canon R5 and Sigma 14mm f1.8. Frames merged in Lightroom with minimal post-processing.