Milky Way Down Under

Russ Brown is a gifted photographer (here's proof -- haha, "proof", I slay me). He sent me a picture he took of the Milky Way over Wellington, NSW (Australia) and it's stunning!

The detail and structure you can see in the center of our galaxy are astonishing, and I was amazed when Russ told me this was a single 30-second exposure! At an ISO of 3200 and a 14 mm lens set to f/3.3, though, you suck down a lot of light (the building must have been very dark for it not to be hugely overexposed, too). I cut my teeth using actual film for photography, and a picture like this would've been incredibly difficult to set up. Nowadays it's not exactly easy, but it's easier.

Not to take anything away from Russ's picture! It takes a good eye and good processing skills to create such a lovely photo like this one. And I'm not at all jealous of the equipment people have now compared to what I had when I was taking tons of pictures and developing them in my bathroom and spending all my allowance and newspaper delivery money on chemicals and paper and an onion to tie to my belt because it was the style of the time.

[shaking fist] YOU KIDS GET OFF MY ELECTRONS!!

Related Posts:

- The Milky Way and the Mashed Potatoes Mountain
- Science Getaways: Dark skies
- Hold on tight: in 4 billion years, weâre due for a galactic collision!
- Parallel worlds