“Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the ‘Milky Way’.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide.
We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go ’round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.”
–The Galaxy Song, Monty Python, The Meaning of Life
Under mostly clear skies the other night, I took my first on-purpose images of the Milky Way. Hoping for more, and for some decent shots of the Perseid Meteor Shower this weekend.
Images link to my Flickr account, which has much bigger versions…click if you want to examine in more detail 🙂
Adventures in Michigan's Up North 
ooooh….ahhhhh…..(holding breath) oooohhhh….ahhhhh. Your titles are awesome. Love that song, as well as your capture of the magic of it all.
I can hardly claim that title – but Monty Python sure comes up with some good ones 😉 To me the night sky (well, in places where you can actually see it – not that there isn’t one everywhere, but you know…one with stars) is like the sunset. It’s so awe-inspiring, and all you have to do is take the moment to heart. It’s a magical experience for me for sure.
Wow…these are just amazing! Starry, starry night….
Thank you – I put in some work learning how to take photographs like these; they are a challenge. A starry, starry night is amazing. It’s always there, but sometimes you just need to really look at it to appreciate it, to really see it. 🙂
Stunning…
Yes. This world of ours is an amazing place.
Beautiful! I feel like I’m outside looking at the sky, but your addition of the water is a bonus.
Water makes everything better 😉
You must have good night skies in Oregon. Many of my friends have never seen the Milky Way. I think it should be one of those bucket list things.
The bottom picture is gorgeous! What were your camera settings?
Thank you!
18mm, f/4.0, 25.0 seconds shutter, 4000 ISO, +2.0 exposure compensation, tungsten white balance
I figured close to a 30sec exposure. My bridge camera cannot go that long. That’s one of it’s drawbacks…night time sky photography. Really beautiful stuff though. I bet it was awesome to see the sky in person that night.
I previously had a bridge camera (have since given it to a former student), and that was one thing I was sad about, too. They do make great cameras, though!
And absolutely the sky was awesome 🙂