The Marvelous Milky Way: Midnight in the Adirondacks (Photo)

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Milky Way From Adirondacks- Rondeau
Astrophotographer Corey Rondeau took this image on August 20, 2014 at Pharoah Lake shortly after midnight. (Image credit: Corey Rondeau)

The stars of our Milky Way galaxy shimmer in this amazing night sky view from New York's scenic Adirondack Park captured by a photographer after a long hike out to a secluded lake.

Astrophotographer Corey Rondeau took this image on August 20, 2014 at Pharoah Lake shortly after midnight.

"A four-hour hike led myself, fiancé and our dogs away from technology and into the wilderness where we found a secluded spot along Pharaoh Lake, one of the many in the Adirondack's," Rondeau wrote. "This was our view each night which came paired with a chorus of loons to serenade us to sleep beneath the Milky Way and the wondrous beauty of the heavens above." [Stunning Photos of the  Milky Way  by Stargazers]

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The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy spanning between 100,000 to 120,000 light-years in diameter. Roughly 400 billion stars populate the galaxy. The dazzling band we see from Earth is the center portion of the galaxy where a gigantic black hole billions of times the size of the sun resides. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). 

To see more amazing night sky photos submitted by Space.com readers, visit our astrophotography archive.

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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Nina Sen
Contributing Writer and Producer

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.