Byline: Miguel Claro, Space.com Contributor
Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical "skyscapes" that connect both Earth and night sky. Join Claro here as he takes us through his photograph "A Galactic Arch is Featuring the Summer and Winter Parts of the Milky Way above a Dead Tree."
A starry night scene captured at the end of summer from the Dark Sky Alqueva reserve in Portugal shows the Milky Way's galactic arc shimmering above a dead tree in Noudar Park.
The mosaic image features two sides of the Milky Way that are not usually visible at the same time. On the left side of the photo is the "summer Milky Way," which gradually disappears in the western horizon when the summer season comes to an end. In the opposite direction of the arc, in the eastern sky, the "winter Milky Way" is starting to appear with the winter constellations of Auriga, the charioteer, and Taurus, the bull, shining bright.
Related: Stunning photos of our Milky Way galaxy (Gallery)
Meanwhile, the stars that form the asterism known as the Summer Triangle are getting low on the horizon in the left side of the sky. The blueish star cluster known as the Pleiades is gradually getting higher, as seen on the right side of the image, announcing the approach of the winter season.
This mosaic comprise 22 single images captured with a Nikon D810a camera, with the ISO set to 2500 and a Sigma Art 20mm lens at f/1.6. The exposure time was 20 seconds.
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To get a print of Claro's amazing astrophotography, visit his fine-art prints store at www.miguelclaro.com/prints. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
