I went to Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Preserve Tuesday evening to photograph the Milky Way, which is now visible until the fall.
The skies were clear but the half moon is not ideal as it results in too much ambient light, although it does help to light the foreground. Nevertheless, I managed to capture the Cygnus Region of the Milky Way over Highland Pond. The reddish North America Nebula is visible in the left centre third of the image.
This was shot just before midnight using a 5-minute long exposure at f/6.3 and ISO 400. I used a 14mm wide-angle lens and the camera was attached to an equatorial mount to counter the earth’s rotation.
