Text: Alex
Andrew McCarthy, who often takes astronomical photos in his backyard, made a long trek this time, boasting half of the earth to the holiday paradise Maldives (Maldives for short) to realize his dream: take a photo that includes the entire Milky Way.
▲McCarthy made a special trip to Maldives to shoot the Milky Way. (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
McCarthy lives in the suburbs of Arizona, USA, and is still more or less affected by light pollution. The sky is not dark enough, resulting in insufficient details of the Milky Way. Also, Arizona’s relatively high latitude keeps the southern tip of the Milky Way from being obscured by Earth. Coming to the Maldives, which is close to the equator, can solve these two problems in one fell swoop.
▲ Maldives has less light pollution and is closer to the equator, allowing for a more complete picture of the Milky Way. (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
The goal of this shooting is to pursue the most details. However, due to the long distance, he cannot bring the large equipment that he usually uses. He can only choose lighter equipment, including: cameras, lenses and trackers specially designed for astronomical photography. After several transfers and a speedboat, McCarthy arrived at his destination. On a small island in the Maldives, he stayed for two weeks. Even though there were bad weather and nights covered by clouds during the period, he finally got the effect he dreamed of.
▲McCarthy can only bring lighter equipment this time. (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
During these two weeks, he took thousands of partial photos of the Milky Way. Since the lens he used only covered a small portion of the Milky Way, it had to be shot in many “plates” to produce the final image. He said: “Light pollution has taken away the perspective of 60% of Europeans and 80% of Americans. We can no longer get enlightenment from the vastness of the stars. I hope my photos inspire people today as they inspired our ancestors, so that we You can get back something that was lost.”
▲A partial enlarged view of the head of Scorpio. (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
▲A partial enlarged view of the tail of Scorpio. (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
McCarthy titled his work “Backbone of Night” and presented it in a limited printpersonal websiteSale.Interested film lovers can go to Instagram、Facebook and X(formerly Twitter) to find more of his work.
▲ Tenzin Four (top left) in Cygnus is a member of the Summer Triangle; Tenzin Nine (bottom) is nearby the Veil Nebula. (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
▲There are many nebulae and star clusters above the constellation Sagittarius (also known as Sagittarius), including the Cygnus Nebula (also known as the Omega Nebula). (photo by Andrew McCarthy)
source:PetaPixel
