Deep-Sky Object

The Milky Way

Also known as GALAXY · KEHKASHAN · VIA LACTEA

Our home galaxy, seen edge-on.

A barred spiral galaxy containing 100–400 billion stars. From dark sites, its bright core arches across the summer sky.

Observing

Requires dark, moonless skies far from city lights. The galactic core in Sagittarius is brightest from June to September.

Best viewing

Summer, new moon

Observing from Chitral

From May to September the galactic core rises in the south-east after dark and this is the reason to travel to Chitral. At a Bortle 2 site the core shows structure to the naked eye and casts a faint gradient on the ground. Shoot it with a 14–24 mm lens at f/2.8, ISO 3200, 15–20 seconds on a fixed tripod; the ridgelines give you foreground that lowland sites cannot.

History & culture

Galileo's first turn of the telescope on the Milky Way in 1610 resolved the band into 'a congeries of innumerable stars', ending centuries of speculation about what the glow was made of.