The Milky Way appears to point right at a Juniper tree in this skywatching image from Sedona, Arizona.
Kelli Klymenko, a photographer in Sedona, took the image from Cathedral Rock Trail in Arizona. It's a familiar shot for Klymenko.
"I photographed this particular juniper a few years ago and wanted to revisit this shot under our brilliant dark skies," he wrote in an email to Space.com. [See more amazing Milky Way photos by stargazers]
Earth's 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 the galaxy lies a gigantic black hole billions of times the size of the sun.
Klymenko says he prefers to capture a moment as he experiences it, and doesn't do too much processing afterwards. For this shot, he light-painted the tree with his phone and worked with the orange from his glowing headlamp.
"The entire experimentation process is a lot of fun out in the field, especially if you don't take yourself too seriously," he added. "That's the best part." He used a Canon 5D Mark III camera; a 14mm Rokinon manual lens; 20 seconds; ISO 8000.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
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