Capturing the Milky Way is no piece of cake

Having sailed for many years in times when the acronym GPS meant absolutely nothing to anyone, and having made a specialty of positioning the sailboat at all times (well, almost) through strange and complex, mantra-uttering procedures such as dead reckoning and astronomical navigation, I know a little bit about the night sky and its occupants, stars, galaxies, nebulæ, etc. Therefore, when I decided I wanted to give a go at photographing the Milky Way, I thought that would probably not be too daunting a task.

I was wrong.

First, I had to ingest and digest a hefty amount of basic knowledge about astrophotography (thank the gods for Youtube tutorials!). I had to learn about (and, as the case may be, procure, then learn to use) PhotoPills (stunning application!), didymium filters and “Sharpstar” focusing devices, dark sky maps, exposure stacking and median software filtering, LED panel foreground illumination and red headlamps, and even the electronic front shutter curtain, a concept I had never needed to really master before.

The Arca-Swiss “Cube” geared head

 

The Hoya “Red Intensifier” didymium filter

The PhotoPills application

The SharpStar focusing aid

The Petzl headlamp that I use

All of this, and much more, before I even went out for the first time to try and shoot the Milky Way, and why is that? do you ask: well, simply because the only time of the month when you can get good pictures of the Milky Way is during the new moon, and that lasts about a week, and if the weather is not cooperating during the said week, well, better luck next month...! And it’s not even all year round, but only between, roughly, March and November.

So, having studied a dark sky map of my region of France, having, a few days ago, dutifully spent hours on small and twisty mountain roads to scout out a possible location suitable for shooting, having found one (not great, but OK darkness-wise) 35 kilometers away from home, I headed out Sunday night with my 24mm ƒ/1.4, my big tripod, my Arca-Swiss geared head, my filters and all the rest of the equipment, including a comfortable folding armchair to watch the immensity of the skies while thinking great thoughts about the Universe.

The weather application on my iPhone said that the sky was clear at my chosen location... but weather forecasting is a difficult science at best, and when I arrived there, the cloud cover was in fact quite thick.

I parked the car, slid open the sunroof and started watching the skies from my reclined seat. There was not much wind, and the thick clouds did not move. Sometimes, a little window of darkness opened between two clouds (it’s amazing how clouds reflect light from the ground, however little there is), allowing me to see how black the sky was, and how sparkling were the few stars I could briefly glimpse... until the cloud cover was drawn back again.

I waited until one in the morning, then decided to call it a night. No need to unfold the canvas armchair, nor even to pull the tripod out of its bag, let alone set it up in position: there was not even a glimmer of hope in the heavens above.

So, that’s about where I am in terms of shooting the Milky Way: nowhere. I still have a few days left until the Moon begins to invade our night sky again and make our galactic core fade away in its reflected light, so let’s keep hoping!

EDIT: I wrote this in July 2017, and even though I tried again a couple of times, I never managed to get a decent photo of the Milky Way last year. I will try again this year...