Spent the weekend on the Bruce Peninsula, primarily to shoot the Milky Way before the end of the season.
This photo was taken at Emmett Lake in Bruce Peninsula National Park Saturday night. The image was shot using an equatorial mount to counter the earth’s rotation and produce pinpoint stars rather than streaks normally seen in photos created by exposures that exceed 30 seconds or so. This method results in images that are cleaner, sharper and more detailed. This is evidenced by the sheer number of stars visible in this image.
Capturing great images of the Milky Way Core is challenging. It requires the right equipment and some knowledge, and is only possible under certain conditions. During Saturday evening, the conditions were ideal. There was no moon, no clouds, little to no light pollutiuon, and low humidity. This night, the core of the Milky Way was clearly visible, even to the naked eye.
The core or centre of the Milky Way is the white cloud-like area just above the tree line. It is located approximately 25,000 light years from earth. To provide a sense of just how far away the core is, it took the light of the core 25,000 years to reach earth and light travels at 186,000 miles per second. The brightest light in the photograph is the planet Jupiter.
The photo was taken using a Nikon D850 camera, a Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens, and Astrotrac equatorial mount . The lens was set at 14 mm, and the camera aperature at f4, an ISO of 640, and a shutter time of 5 minutes.
