We have just passed the summer solstice and the longest days of the year. Although every day is getting shorter and darker now the sky is turning more and more beautiful. Here are some photos to serve as reminder of what to look forward to in the night sky.
Living in Norway we can enjoy of a low level of light pollution and can view a spectacular night sky close to any place in the country. Even with houses, cabins and lights nearby it is possible to see a star-filled sky. This photo was taken in Bamble in Telemark around Christmas last year, where both the Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy can be seen in the top of the photo. Both these astronomical objects can be seen with the naked eye on a clear day:
The Milky Way can also be viewed with the naked eye, here also seen from Bamble with the same astronomical objects in the photo:
The moon usually makes star gazing hard, but a full moon night is no reason to stay indoors. Bring binoculars or take a photo with a camera and a telephoto lens and see the many details of our earth’s only natural satellite:
The photo below is from the Andes mountains in Peru. Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is one of the greatest travel experiences we have ever had and a great opportunity to get away from light pollution and view the night sky:
Even in larger cities (by Norwegian scale!) the Milky Way can be seen, this photo was taken in Stavanger in Norway about a year ago:
Travelling further away from the cities the sky turns even clearer. This was captured around Odda, a small town in Norway where the amazing hike to Trolltunga starts, one of Norway’s natural wonders for those with no fear of heights. The photo from the top of the article is taken from the same place later at night.
Norway isn’t the only place for star gazers. When we travelled around the world in 2016-2017 we decided to climb to the top of Lion’s Head in Cape Town at night to take a photo of Table Mountain with the night sky in the background. At the time we were not aware of the risks of walking outdoors at night with camera gear in a not-so-safe city, but luckily all went well and we have learned not to do so again.
Zimbabwe is also a fantastic country for star gazing and we had the pleasure of viewing an amazing sky from Matobo National Park:
We also made a time lapse here; what looks like a meteor crossing the sky is actually the International Space Station!
When on the subject of Africa it is hard to just pick a few photos, so we carry on with a some more, starting with one from Namibia:
Further on we spent time in Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa. This photo was actually taken with a GoPro, so a fancy camera is not needed to capture the night sky, although it does produce a lot better results!
In this national park we also captured a photo that was used in an article by Wild magazine and published on their website:
In Africa we also tried some more creative night photography and captured this in Zimbabwe:
On dark nights the landscape below the skies can be captured in unique ways as well. Because there are so few light sources there is no hard light and shadow and everything looks a bit strange. The photo below was taken with an exposure of more than 10 minutes because it was almost completely dark:
In some areas of the sky different kind of “light spots” can be seen. These are galaxies, nebulas and collections of stars. The easiest galaxy to see with the naked eye is of course the Milky Way and can be identified by looking for a straight path of brighter stars across the sky. Here is the Milky Way as seen from Odda in Norway:
Since we are located within the Milky Way ourselves we view it from the inside, but the Andromeda Galaxy can be viewed in full and is the closest galaxy to us. The easiest way to locate it in the sky is to use a mobile app, we are using Sky Guide ourselves. It is quite hard to see it with the naked eye, but by letting the eyes adapt to dark surroundings it can be seen. It becomes a lot easier by the help of binoculars. To the right of the Andromeda Galaxy it is possible to see another galaxy, Messier 110, in the photo below:
The Orion Nebula is another amazing sight in the sky. Use binoculars and find Orion’s Belt and you will be able to see this one. It doesn’t require a completely remote place to be viewed from either, this photo was taken in Bamble, only a 15 minute drive from the 7th largest urban area in Norway:
In the southern hemisphere there are also some spectacular objects in the night sky and we therefore end this series of photos with the Mensa Nebula that we photographed in Africa:
