The glimmering Milky Way seems to sit atop the Corona Arch in Utah in this spectacular photo captured by a veteran night sky photographer.
Astrophotographer Mike Taylor took this image on May 27 from Bootlegger Canyon just outside of Moab, Utah.
"There was quite a bit of airglow in the sky this evening," Taylor wrote in an email to Space.com. However, the airglow, which is a weak emission of light by a planet's atmosphere, did not deter Taylor,who also added:"I'm having a blast out in Utah." [Amazing Stargazing Photos of June 2014]
To capture this view, Taylor used a Nikon D600 camera & 14-24 @ 14mm f/2.8 at a 30 sec exposure and ISO 3200. The Corona Arch was lit with an orange LED to match the surrounding landscape. This image is a blend of two shots, one for the sky and one for the foreground.
Our host galaxy, the Milky Way, is a barred spiral galaxy seen as a band of light in the night sky. It stretches between 100, 000 and 120,000 light-years in diameter. It is estimated that the galaxy has approximately 400 billion stars. At the center of our galaxy lies a gigantic black hole billions of times the size of the sun.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
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