Cool! Astrophotographer Combines Fish-Eye Views of Milky Way for Stunning View

Milky Way Circular Panorama by Mamtani — The circular panorama was taken by astrophotographer Manish Mamtani on March 8, 2016 from Gloucester, MA. (Image credit: Manish Mamtani)

A yellow glow and purple Milky Way surrounds the Eastern Point Lighthouse in Maine.

The circular panorama was taken by astrophotographer Manish Mamtani on March 8 from Gloucester, Massachusetts.

"It was a peaceful, beautiful clear night and I had the whole place to myself," Mamtani wrote. [How to Photograph the Milky Way in Light Pollution (Photos)]

The Milky Way, our own galaxy containing the solar system, is a barred spiral galaxy with roughly 400 billion stars. The stars, along with gas and dust, appear like a band of light in the sky when seen from Earth. The galaxy stretches between 100,000 to 120,000 light-years in diameter.

The Milky Way Galaxy is organized into spiral arms of giant stars that illuminate interstellar gas and dust. The sun is in a finger called the Orion Spur.

This image was created by merging four separate fish eye images looking in different directions. Mamtani uses a Canon 5d Mkiii camera with a Canon 8-15mm fish eye at 8mm, F4, iso 4000 for 30 seconds.

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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.